You Ought to Be With Me
by akane47
Summary: Tamsin Lee is new in Alexandria and doesn't seem to be too happy about it. She has a bit of an attitude, can't get along with anybody and knows beans about football. And yet Sunshine finds her fascinating... COMPLETE
1. Alone Again

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves, while fictitious characters from the movie _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. Dean & Deluca and New York University also do not belong to me. The title of this story comes from the 1972 Al Green hit, while the title of the chapter is from the Gilbert O'Sullivan song from the same era. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, their fictitious house and car, and Tamsin's mother.

**Technical Notes:** This story is set during the 1972-1973 academic year.

**Introductory Remarks:** I can't believe I'm writing this story! If you check out my author profile, you'll see that I mainly do Harry Potter fanfiction, but I finally got to see _Remember the Titans_ recently and I just loved the movie; so, here is my little homage to a truly great film. Hope you'll enjoy it! ~ Ara Kane

**YOU OUGHT TO BE WITH ME**

_Prologue — Alone Again _

_Finally._

Tamsin Lee stretched her aching back, surveying the six big boxes scattered around her new bedroom. Now that they were all inside, she thought, all that was left was to unpack them. Tamsin groaned.

There was a gentle tap on the door, and it swung open slightly. "Tam?" a male voice asked. "Are you alright?"

She turned away from the window and its view of nighttime Alexandria to smile wanly at Jonathan Graham, her designated guardian, as he entered the room. "I'm fine, Uncle Jon. I just finished lugging in all my boxes."

"You should have waited until I was free to help you." He had been downstairs, stuffed headfirst into the kitchen cabinets, arranging the pots and pans.

"I was able to handle them myself."

Uncle Jon gave her an indulgent smile. "You're not in New York anymore, sweetie. You don't have to do everything yourself — _I'm_ here to help you."

"I'll keep that in mind."

He looked at the boxes. "Some of those looked really heavy," he observed. "Couldn't bear to leave your books behind, huh?"

Tamsin grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. Mom wasn't too happy about that. She said three boxes only, but I needed two for books alone, so I wound up with more boxes."

"I guessed right, then, when I let you have the room with the floor-to-ceiling shelves."

"I won't be filling them all up, Uncle Jon. I'll only be living here for a year, after all."

He shrugged. "You never know; there might be a few good bookstores in town and with that allowance money your mother will be wiring you every week, you might just wind up leaving here with _three_ boxes bursting with books."

"Mom will kill me."

"She'll understand, sweetie. Do you need help unpacking?"

She shook her head. "No, I'll be fine."

"I'll be starting dinner, then."

"Alright."

Tamsin smiled again and watched him leave before ripping the packing tape off the nearest box. At least she didn't have to cook dinner tonight. Uncle Jon said they would work out a cooking schedule between the two of them, but he assured her that she wouldn't have to do the cooking every night, like she did back in New York.

Not that she minded cooking. Growing up in Greenwich Village with an actress-mother who ran on coffee and cigarettes, Tamsin needed to learn to cook early on; but it had grown from a chore to a hobby. She enjoyed going to the store and looking for the best ingredients, occasionally bringing home a gourmet treat from Dean & Deluca when there was some extra money, and experimenting with new and unusual recipes. Inspiration about her cooking struck her almost as often as did inspiration about her writing.

She shook her head as she put away her clothes and books. Without her around to cook, her mother was probably going to live on takeout. And if Uncle Jon was right when he said her mother was going to be sending more of Tamsin's things later, it looked like she was going to be eating takeout for a long time.

* * *

The next day, Uncle Jon took her to TC Williams High School to register for the upcoming school year. He left Tamsin at the registrar's office while he went to see the principal.

The registrar, a plump, smiling older woman with a beehive hairdo, peered curiously at her through gold-rimmed bifocals. "Senior year, dear?" she chirped.

Tamsin nodded as she handed over her old school records. "Yes, ma'am."

The registrar flipped through her file. "New York City! My, Alexandria must seem like a one-horse town compared to the Big Apple."

"Well, Alexandria's a lot quieter than I'm used to," she admitted, "but it looks like a nice place."

"Oh, you'll love it here, dear. It's clean, and the people are nice. We're integrated now, you know — we're catching up to all them big cities."

"That's great news."

The plump woman looked at Tamsin more keenly. "So…Mr. Graham is your uncle?"

She nodded. _Don't bother explaining that he's a friend of the family. _Her mother had told her that more conservative folk might not take to the idea of her living with someone who was not a relative. Calling Jonathan Graham her uncle would simplify things.

Then, to her surprise, the registrar smiled. "Yes, you do look a bit like him around the eyes, even though yours look mighty different at first glance. Are you Chinese?"

Tamsin nodded. "My mother is. My father was white."

The plump woman caught the "was" and instantly looked sympathetic. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear he's no longer with us, dear."

She shrugged uncomfortably. "I never really knew him." In fact, his being white was all she knew about him.

"Well, at least your uncle is doing right by you," the registrar said, cheering up again. "Mr. Graham seems like a very nice young man. What will he be teaching?"

"English Literature."

"I don't quite cotton to his looks, though. Those granny glasses, all that hair…he's not one of those radical hippies, is he?"

"No, ma'am," Tamsin replied, carefully keeping her voice even. Uncle Jon had a full brown beard, untidy hair that fell well past his collar, and some fairly unconventional ideas; but he wasn't about to throw Molotov cocktails through windows or organize sit-ins. "He was teaching at New York University when he decided to take this job."

"Oh, a _college_ professor! Well, that explains it. They don't have rules on grooming in colleges."

"He's a very good teacher," she said, a little more firmly than she had intended.

"I'm sure he is, dear."

Presently, voices outside distracted Tamsin and she looked out the window. There was a crowd gathered in the parking lot below, watching a group of well-dressed young men board a couple of buses. "What's going on down there?" she asked as a boy in a wheelchair was lifted onto one bus.

"Down there?" The registrar looked out the window and smiled. "Oh, that's the football team, leaving for training camp. You know the sign we've got on the border?"

She frowned thoughtfully. They had passed it on their way into the city. "_Welcome to Alexandria — Home of the Titans?"_

The plump woman nodded. "Well, those are the Titans."

"I see."

"They're very nice boys. Maybe you'll have some of them in your classes this year."


	2. First Time I Ever Saw Your Face

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria, VA. Yoko Ono and the original Titans belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter was taken from the 1972 Roberta Flack song, and again, I don't own NYU. I also don't own the books, publications and authors mentioned in this chapter. I only own Tamsin, Mr. Graham, and anyone else who doesn't sound familiar.

**Technical Notes:** Petey Jones appears in this story even though the real Petey graduated after the 1971 season. I'm also retaining certain events and character traits that are said not to have happened in real life. It makes me less guilty that I'm playing around with something based on a true story :D

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to JupiterHalo, Kim, Dearest, I Am Not a Freak and sharon for reviewing!

* * *

_Chapter One – First Time I Ever Saw Your Face_

School opened on September 4th that year. There was a small crowd of people waving picket signs, protesting the integration of the black and white school systems, but there were less of them. Within the TC Williams High School student body, some tensions remained, but both black and white students were more comfortable around each other after a full year together.

They cheered as one when Gerry Bertier rolled up the front walk in his wheelchair. Beside him walked Big Julius Campbell, his best friend. Gerry and Big Julius had formed the cornerstones of the of the TC Williams Titans defense until Gerry lost the use of his legs in a car accident. Nevertheless, the Titans had rallied and ended that season with a perfect 13-0 win-loss record and the 1971 Virginia State Championship.

Even a few of the protesters applauded grudgingly when Gerry and Big Julius passed by. The Titans' perfect season, solid evidence that black and white could successfully work together, had silenced many of the objections over the desegregation of the Alexandria school system.

Gerry gave the crowd a smile and a wave, then greeted his former coach, Bill Yoast. Yoast patted Gerry's back warmly, shook Big Julius' hand, and watched the two boys join some of the other Titans in one corner of the front lawn.

"'Morning, Herman," Yoast then greeted his fellow Titans coach as the formidable black man strode toward the steps leading into the school building.

"'Morning, Bill," Herman Boone replied. They shook hands and looked up at the red brick building, streaming with students returning for another year. "Good to be back, ain't it?"

"Sure is."

They walked up the steps, past the shady patch of grass where Titans quarterback Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass was doing his daily _tai chi_ exercises, watched as usual by a gaggle of admiring TC Williams girls. "He is so cute," a junior sighed.

"I just love how the sun shines off his hair," her best friend breathed.

"Is he going with anyone?" a freshman asked timidly.

"I heard he dated Miranda Fleming over the summer, but that's all over now."

There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Aww, man!" a cocky male voice said loudly behind them. "Haven't I told y'all that y'all ain't got no chance with ol' Sunshine?" Petey Jones asked.

"Why is that?" the freshman wanted to know.

"'Cause Sunshine is from _California_!"

The group of girls shook their heads and began to walk to class. They still had no idea what Sunshine's being from California had to do with anything.

* * *

Ronnie Bass breathed deeply and changed position, carefully maintaining the precise balance of tension and fluidity in his movements. As the breathing and exercise cleared his head, he realized that the first bell was ringing. "Oh, shit!"

He lunged for his jacket and books and sprinted up the front steps, now empty of students. _What a way to start off the year!_ Ronnie thought as he raced down the corridors to homeroom. He had old Mr. Magruder again this year, and he'd probably walk in right in the middle of the customary "tardiness" lecture. Life could get ironic that way.

He ran past a bank of lockers and rounded a corner, then skidded to a stop right inside Mr. Magruder's classroom just as the final bell rang. Almost immediately after that, something plowed into Ronnie's back. "_Oof! Jeez—"_ someone said, and there was a terrific clatter behind him.

He spun around even as the class applauded his photo-finish entrance. Out in the hallway, a girl was crouched amid a mess of books. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry," he said, reaching down to try and help her up. "Are you—" He stopped short when she threw back her long, dark hair and he found himself staring into a small, pale face. "—OK?"

She blinked at him for a moment, then resumed gathering up her things. "I'm fine," she said. At least she didn't sound like she was in pain — just slightly annoyed, and he couldn't blame her for that.

"I'm really sorry," he repeated, trying to help her pick up her books.

"Forget about it," she told him briskly, waving off his offer of help.

"Well, I could have hurt you or something. Is anything broken?"

"I'm _fine_," she said again, taking her last book and jumping to her feet. Ronnie stood and quickly got out of her way.

Mr. Magruder was regarding him sourly. "You narrowly escaped a tardy on the first day of school, Mr. Bass," he said in his flat, droning voice. "Take your seat."

Ronnie mumbled something and walked to his usual seat in the back row, exchanging a low five with Petey Jones before sitting down. By then, Mr. Magruder had started in on the girl who'd come in after him. "Unfortunately, thanks to Mr. Bass, _you_ are tardy on the first day of school, Miss—"

"—Lee," she supplied, marching to the teacher's desk and thrusting a small orange card at him. "And I'm not late."

Mr. Magruder frowned as he looked at the card. "I stand corrected," he grumbled, "indeed you are not. Class, this is Tamsin Lee, a new student here at TC Williams High School." He glared at his students as they let out a collective _Ooh_. "I trust that you will all make her time with us as pleasant as possible," he told them acidly. "You may sit down, Miss Lee."

* * *

Her face was on fire with embarrassment, but Tamsin kept her head up as she smiled briefly at no one in particular and selected a seat in the front row.

She sat stiffly and stared fixedly at the blackboard as the homeroom teacher began a droning lecture on school rules and regulations. After a while, however, after her initial abject humiliation wore off, Tamsin relaxed in her seat and glanced surreptitiously around.

The classroom looked just like all the others she had ever been in (with the exception of Uncle Jon's huge amphitheater-type classrooms at NYU), but everything looked fairly new, which was only to be expected since TC Williams High School was just over a year old.

The green of the blackboard had dulled only slightly and her desk was still relatively free of graffiti. The large windows were open, but it was warmer than it would have been in New York at this time of year, and the musty smell of chalk dust still hung heavily in the air. Outside, however, instead of grim gray buildings, all Tamsin could see was an endless expanse of blue sky, flecked with fluffy white clouds.

The chairs to her left were all unoccupied, but to her right sat a slender blonde girl in a pink-flowered sundress. The girl turned to her before Tamsin could glance away, but she smiled and spoke to her in a friendly voice. "Hi. I love your earrings."

She smiled self-consciously, fingering the large gold hoops dangling from her earlobes. "Thanks."

"I wish my mom would let me wear earrings like those to school."

Tamsin grinned then. "These _are_ my mom's."

The homeroom teacher cut short his lecture to look balefully at them through his large horn-rimmed glasses. "May I help you with anything, ladies?" he asked sharply. Some of the other students in the room tittered.

"No, Mr. Magruder," the blonde girl replied innocently.

"Hmph. If you're sure…"

"Oh, yes, we're sure," Tamsin muttered, just loud enough for her new friend to hear. They looked at each other and smiled as Mr. Magruder resumed his monologue.

* * *

Lunch period at TC Williams High School, just like lunch period in schools everywhere, was crowded, noisy, and rife with cooking smells. Tamsin tried scanning the sea of faces for Emma Hoyt, the blonde girl from homeroom, but eventually gave up and sat alone. It was a good thing that she brought a book to the cafeteria, she thought as she unpacked her bag lunch, flicked away a paper football that had landed on her table, and began to eat.

Tamsin was a few bites into her chicken stir-fry when someone snatched her book out of her hand. It was Emma. "_There_ you are!" the blonde girl said. "We've been looking all over for you!"

"You were?" A few other girls stood behind Emma, holding lunch trays. Most of them were dressed much like Emma, but one or two wore cheerleaders' skirts and sweaters.

"Of course! I asked you to sit with us, didn't I? And I was telling everyone that they _had_ to meet you. Everyone, this is Tamsin Lee; Tamsin, meet Sally Jane Parsons, Miranda Fleming, Robin Page, Jeannie Smith, and Lisa McAllister."

"I heard you put Magruder in his place today," Miranda, a tall, strikingly pretty redhead in a cheerleader's uniform, said to Tamsin with a brilliant smile. "I had him for homeroom last year. It's an honor to meet you."

"All I did was tell him I wasn't late," she admitted as the girls took places at her table.

Miranda giggled. "Well, you proved him wrong, didn't you?"

She shrugged as a tall blond boy in a TC Williams letter jacket walked by and nodded to them. Some of Emma's friends giggled and waved at him. "Hi, Sunshine," Lisa said archly.

To Tamsin's surprise, the boy smiled and nodded to her, too. "Do I know him?" she asked when he had gone.

"Sure you do," Emma said. "That's Ronnie Bass, the guy who knocked you over in homeroom."

Jeannie squealed in disbelief. "_He knocked you over?"_

"I walked into his back and I wasn't looking at his face," Tamsin told her. "I had my mind on other things — like trying to go through the rest of the day without making an even bigger fool of myself."

"It was nice of him to not ignore us," Sally Jane observed. "But then you and Sunshine stayed friends when you broke up, didn't you, Miranda?"

The redheaded girl nodded. "He was really nice about it when I broke things off."

Emma smiled then. "Um, speaking of breaking things off," she began, "Gerry and I kind of saw each other a few times over the summer and now we're thinking of giving our relationship a second try."

"You and Gerry?" Lisa blurted out. "But he's a cripple!"

Tamsin frowned. She assumed that they were talking about the boy in the wheelchair she had seen with the Titans — there seemed to be no other "cripple" at TC Williams — but even if they weren't, that was no way to talk to about a person. "That doesn't make him any less of a human being," she told the other girl sharply.

Lisa blushed. "Sorry, Emma," she said to her friend, whose face had fallen when she had called Gerry a cripple. "I'm glad you and Gerry are getting back together."

"We're only giving it another try," Emma said, venturing a smile again.

"Well, you and him were real happy when you were together," Robin piped up gamely. "I think it'll work out better, now that this whole race thing is resolved."

"'Race thing'?" Tamsin wanted to know.

"He hangs out with blacks," the other girl explained, gesturing toward where the boy in the wheelchair was eating with Ronnie Bass and several other letter-jacket-wearing boys. Some of them were indeed dark-skinned.

Emma's cheeks were pink. "I guess I didn't take to the idea of integration as easily as he did," she admitted. "Big Julius scared me, but then I saw that he was such a good friend to Gerry…"

"Well, it's very nice of you," Jeannie said, her tone rather patronizing.

"This has nothing to do with the accident," Emma told her. "I really do love him. I always have."

"Of course you did," Sally Jane said, sounding a lot like Jeannie.

Tamsin sighed and dug into her lunch. It was going to be one long lunch period.

* * *

"I thought this day would never end," Ronnie muttered as he made his way to English, his last period class. The first day of school was always hardest to get through. At least he wasn't a new student this year.

He located the right room, entered, and came face to face with a smiling, bearded man with granny glasses perched on his nose. If he hadn't been wearing a proper shirt and jacket, Ronnie would have mistaken him for the hippie custodian from his old school in Huntington Beach.

"May I help you?" the bearded guy asked cheerfully.

"Uh…" Ronnie glanced down at his schedule. "Is this Mr. Graham's English class?"

"It sure is. I'm Mr. Graham, and welcome. Have a seat." Mr. Graham grinned. "Some of your friends are already here. You can sit with them if you like."

Sure enough, Gerry Bertier, Jerry "the Rev" Harris and Alan Bosely were waving to him from the back row. Gerry and Alan were wearing their letter jackets, which was probably how Mr. Graham deduced that they were Ronnie's friends. "Thanks," he said, and went to join them.

Darryl "Blue" Stanton was just joining them when Tamsin Lee, the new girl from his homeroom, came in and was greeted by the teacher. "Man, y'all never told me Yoko Ono was in this class!" Gerry joked.

Ronnie snorted back a laugh and prodded his former teammate sharply as Tamsin and Mr. Graham turned in their direction. She looked somewhat annoyed. "Yoko Ono is Japanese. _I'm_ Chinese," she informed him. "There's a difference."

"What difference?" scoffed Ray Budds. "Y'all look alike."

She turned to Ray. "Nevertheless, there is a difference," she said crisply, "and I suggest you learn it."

"_Ooh,"_ Alan and Blue chorused as she took a seat in the front row. "Someone got told!"

"Are you talkin' about me or Ray?" Gerry asked.

"Both of you," said Rev with a good-natured smile.

Ronnie chuckled. Gerry was a good guy, with a football brain that couldn't be beat, but he liked to mouth off sometimes. The day Ronnie had come to join the Titans, Gerry called him a fruitcake because of his then-long hair, but it was nothing a football between the shoulder blades couldn't fix. "Don't worry about it, bro," he told Gerry. "Budds put more of his foot in his mouth than you did."

"Thanks a lot, Sunshine," his friend grumbled, not in the least consoled.

"All right, that's enough; settle down, everyone," Mr. Graham said, moving to the front of the classroom. The last few stragglers came in and took their seats. "Shall we begin?" He smiled at the class and gestured to the words he had written on the blackboard. "Welcome to English Literature IV. I'm your teacher, Jonathan Graham. In this classroom, kindly address me as Mr. Graham; but outside, you may call me Jon."

The Titans looked at each other in surprise. They'd never been encouraged to call a teacher by his Christian name before; but if appearance was anything to go by, this Mr. Graham was decidedly unconventional.

"Now," Mr. Graham continued, "I'm new here at TC Williams; indeed, I've just moved here to Alexandria. Why don't we all get to know each other by introducing ourselves and telling each other what kind of book we're reading right now? I'll start. My name is Jonathan Graham, and I'm presently reading _Eichmann in Jerusalem_ by Hannah Arendt." He smiled encouragingly. "Anyone willing to go next?" He nodded to Ray Budds. "How about you, sir?"

Ray looked around at his friends, then grinned. "I'm Ray Budds," he said, "and I'm presently reading _MAD Magazine_."

Mr. Graham nodded and chuckled good-naturedly while the rest of the class laughed. "An excellent choice, Mr. Budds; nevertheless, I hope that this class will encourage you to branch out. Who's up next?"

Gerry raised his hand. "Gerry Bertier," he announced, "and I'm reading the TC Williams Titans play-book." He grinned at the applause that followed his statement, then nudged Rev, who was sitting beside him. "You next, Rev."

Rev smiled and obliged. "Jerry Harris," he said. "The Bible."

"Don't you read anything else?" one of the other black boys in the class asked him. "Man, Rev, we ought to get you some _Playboys_!"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, there are ladies present," Mr. Graham reminded them, as Rev and quite a few of the girls blushed. "Please save it for the locker room. Next!"

Still slightly embarrassed, Rev cleared his throat. "How 'bout you, Sunshine?"

Ronnie grinned at his friend, then turned to the teacher. "My name's Ronnie Bass. I'm reading _Siddhartha_ by Hermann Hesse."

His friends whooped admiringly and Mr. Graham looked pleasantly surprised. Ronnie supposed he wasn't used to football players who read stuff like that.

He picked Alan to go next, and then Blue went, and so on around the room. Some of them said that they were reading the newspapers, while others cited children's classics like _Tom Sawyer_. Some people obviously just made up book titles and authors, but Mr. Graham smiled and let it slide.

Tamsin was last to speak because no one knew her enough to pick her to go next. "Tamsin Lee," she said, "and I just finished _Siddhartha_."

The teacher smiled and nodded at her. "Thank you, Tamsin. Well, I'm glad to know I have quite a few avid readers in this class," he continued, grinning at someone who had given him a bogus answer, "because this class will involve just as much reading as writing.

"Don't worry, though," Mr. Graham assured his groaning students, "you won't be going at it alone. Not only will you be doing group work during the semester, but I am also perfectly willing to lend a hand to anyone who needs it." He gave the students the times of the periods during which he was free, as well as his home address and phone number in case they couldn't reach him during the day. "Anytime any of you want to talk or need some advice, whether or not it's about class, I'm here to help you. All right?"

He then clapped his hands together briskly. "Well, that's enough information for one day, don't you think? We can begin the formal lessons on Wednesday." Mr. Graham grinned as most of his students applauded. "Now, I don't think I'm allowed to let you out early, but you can stay in here and do your own thing until the bell rings. Just keep it quiet, OK?"

"He's pretty cool," Alan murmured as everyone was left to his or her own devices. "He lets us call him 'Jon' outside of class, gives us his schedule and phone number in case we want to talk…who ever heard of a teacher like that?"

"I heard he taught college before he came here," Blue said. "I guess that's how they do things there."

* * *

When the last bell finally rang, Ronnie went for his locker. There wasn't any football practice after school that day, but he and a couple of others were going to the Burg to shoot some hoops. He dumped his books in his locker and picked up the gym bag he had left inside.

He shut the door with a _clang_ and turned to see a frowning Tamsin struggling with a locker door that refused to close properly. "Need any help with that?" he asked when she yanked the door open again, muttering something that was most probably unladylike.

Her brow was still furrowed when she turned to look at him. "You think you can do anything with it?"

"I can try." Ronnie walked over, looked at the door, and lifted it slightly before closing it. It stayed closed this time. "One of the hinges is loose," he told her. "You'll need to have the custodian fix it."

"I will." Tamsin gave her locker a dirty look. "I thought this was a new building."

"It is, but there were a few bad fights in the halls last year, and some things got banged up."

"Ah." She nodded understandingly. "I see."

He looked down at her. Now that he was much closer, Ronnie could see that she was rather small for her age, probably only five feet tall if she wasn't wearing those high-heeled boots. "Hi, I'm Ronnie Bass. Some people call me Sunshine."

"Tamsin Lee." They shook hands briefly.

"Sorry I knocked you over this morning."

She waved away his apology. "I told you, forget about it. _I'm_ trying to."

He smiled. "So…" Ronnie said after a short pause, "are you going to tell me how the book ends?"

Tamsin blinked. Her eyes were dark and just slightly almond-shaped. "What book?"

"_Siddhartha_."

"Oh." She smiled crookedly at him. "Of course not. You're going to have to find out the ending for yourself."


	3. The In Crowd

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria. The original Titans belong to themselves, as do the Doors, Dick Dale and Yoko Ono, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter comes from the Ramsey Lewis song on my _Good Morning Saigon_ CD. The Corvette, Dodge Charger and Volkwagen Beetle belong to their respective automotive companies, Coke belongs to the Coca Cola Company, and _Siddhartha_ belongs to Hermann Hesse. I only own Tamsin and Diana Lee, Jonathan Graham, the Snack n' Cue, assorted TC Williams students and personnel, and Ma Rose's.

****

Technical Notes: I am from the Philippines and am not familiar with the usual schedule of events in American high schools. I understand it varies across schools and therefore, to preserve my plot, have moved Homecoming to November. I have also changed Spirit Week into another sort of activity, again held a bit later in the year, and argue that this is possible because my mother's high school held Together Week instead of Spirit Week in October of 1972, the same era in which my story is set. (Frankly, there seemed to be no difference in the activities, but I needed to move it to again preserve my plot.) My apologies to those who find this objectionable.

Further, I do not know if the real Gerry Bertier remained involved with the Titans after his accident, but in this story he serves as a special assistant coach because he's hurt, not dead (hee) and I'm sure the Titans could very well use Gerry's football instincts. I also have no idea if the Hill really exists, what the name of the first TC Williams High School principal was, and the exact kind of car driven by Colonel Bass in the movie. I just picked the 1970 Dodge Charger after looking through a few classic car websites on a PC with very bad resolution. (I can't believe the amount of research I'm doing for this story!) Finally, I am not putting a mall in Alexandria, although I know they started coming up in the late 1960s. With all that said, you may now proceed to the story. Thank you for your patience.

__

Chapter Two — The "In" Crowd

Tamsin made a face at herself in the third floor girls' room mirror. Her hair was fine. There was nothing in her teeth and on her dark purple sweater. There was nothing wrong with her lipstick, either, because she wasn't wearing any. All in all, she didn't look any different from the last time she had looked in the mirror, less than ten minutes ago.

On either side of her, Emma and her friends were using up the remainder of the lunch period to primp for that afternoon's classes. Dressed in schoolgirl pastels, they looked like a bouquet of flowers — a bouquet of flowers with an eggplant stuck in the middle by mistake.

"Relax, Tamsin," Emma teased. "Your face hasn't changed from the last time you looked."

"She's not worried about _that_," Robin said as the other girls laughed. "She just wants to look absolutely perfect when she gets out of here. Who are you fixing up for, Tamsin?"

Tamsin arched an eyebrow as they all looked at her with interest. "No one. What?" she asked as Jeannie and Lisa hummed skeptically. "Can't a girl look good for herself anymore?"

"Come on, Tammy, spill it," Sally Jane coaxed. The cutesy nickname set Tamsin's teeth on edge. "We won't tell."

__

Fat chance. Their hot topic during the past hour had been the dating lives of people whom Tamsin had never heard of. "I already told you, no one," she said. Although she had probably looked at herself at least a million times during the past forty-five minutes, she had decided to have another go at the mirror for lack of anything better to do. The others were finally fixing up, which meant that they would be leaving the girls' room soon.

"Hmm, I wonder who it could be?" Lisa asked, as if Tamsin had said nothing.

"I just said _no one_. Didn't you hear me?"

"Oh, come on, Tammy," Jeannie said. "When people say 'no one,' they really mean 'someone.'"

"Well, unlike those people, I said 'no one,' and I _mean_ 'no one.'" 

"All right," the other girl muttered. "There's no need to bite my head off."

Shortly after that, Miranda fluffed out one final curl and said that they had better go. Tamsin breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed her books. She was the first one out the door.

Robin caught up with her out in the hall. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable in there," she murmured. "I didn't mean to get the others started on you."

Even though she was still irritable, Tamsin managed a smile. "Forget about it. It wasn't your fault they wouldn't drop the subject, anyway. And I'm sorry I was kind of mean in there," she added. "I wasn't feeling too good, with the smell and all…" Besides the strong odor of disinfectant, a dozen different kinds of cologne had mingled with the smoke from Miranda and Jeannie's illicit cigarettes in the warm air inside the girls' room. It really had made Tamsin feel rather ill.

The pretty, dark-haired girl wrinkled her nose and nodded understandingly. "Yeah, I know. I hate it, too. See you at lunch tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure." 

* * *

"'Bye, Uncle Jon!" Tamsin called over the noise coming from the study. She hoped he could hear her over the Doors and the _clickety-clack_ of the typewriter. "We're going!" Outside, a car horn honked.

The study door opened and Uncle Jon stuck his head in the hallway. "What?"

"I said we're going," she repeated. "I'm going with Emma and her friends to the Snack n' Cue."

"The Snack n' Cue? That sounds like a pool hall."

"I guess they've got a few pool tables," Tamsin said hastily as the car horn blew again, "but it's for teenagers, so there is no beer; and if there are any drugs I'll stay away from them; and if anyone gets too fresh, I'll kick him where it hurts."

"Good girl. What time will you be home?" He chuckled when she looked stumped. "OK, never mind. Just try to be back before sunrise. You remember where the key is."

She grinned at him. "Yes, _Father_. 'Bye!" she called as the car horn honked a third time.

Tamsin grabbed her jacket and bounded out the door. "Sorry I'm late," she said breathlessly as she jumped into Robin's red-and-white Corvette. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

Emma smiled at her from the front seat. "Don't worry. We went through the same thing at each of our houses. Shall we go? Miranda and the others are probably there already."

The Snack n' Cue was a recently integrated teen hangout on the outskirts of town. The large front room boasted a jukebox near the entrance, snack bar in the back, and couches and café-style tables on which to sit. The pool tables and pinball machines clustered in the back room.

Miranda, Jeannie and Lisa were already seated on one of the couches when they arrived. "Hi!" Jeannie squealed as Tamsin, Emma and Robin sat down. "Thank goodness you're here! We thought you wouldn't be able to make it — Sally's folks wouldn't let her go."

"Who's here?" Robin asked.

"Oh, you know, the usual people," Miranda said, waving regally to a group of girls. "And some of the more unusual ones."

Tamsin ignored the redheaded girl's remark and waved at one of the black students who had just entered. "That's Sharon Williams," she explained. "We're partners in Physics lab."

Emma nodded and waved to the girl, too. "I know. She and Julius have doubled with Gerry and me a few times. She's really nice."

"Ooh, look, the Titans are here," Lisa said then as Gerry Bertier wheeled into the room, followed by most of the team, fresh from practice.

"And so's Corey," Robin noted happily as her boyfriend, Corey Hunter, entered the Snack n' Cue with his twin brother, Ryan. She excused herself and went to greet Corey just as Gerry rolled up to where the girls were sitting. "Hey, Emma," he said, smiling at his girlfriend. "Ladies," he added, nodding politely to her friends.

"Hi, Gerry," Emma replied, smiling back, then gestured to Tamsin, sitting beside her. "Have you met Tamsin Lee? She's new in town."

"Yeah, I know her. We have English together. Hi, Tamsin; I'm Gerry." He held out a friendly hand. _Are we cool?_ his earnest expression seemed to ask.

Tamsin smiled and decided to bury the "Yoko Ono" hatchet. "Pleased to meet you, Gerry."

"Same here. Are we still on for tomorrow night?" Gerry then asked Emma.

"Sure," she said happily. Figuring that was her cue to leave the lovebirds alone, Tamsin got to her feet. "Oh, you don't have to go," the blonde girl protested. "Stay here with us. This won't take a minute."

"No, you go on ahead," Tamsin told them, smiling to show that she understood. "I'm going to have a look at the jukebox."

That was how Dick Dale's "Misirlou" came on just as Ronnie entered the Snack n' Cue. The pulse-pounding surf guitar hit the quarterback in the face as he walked in, and for the briefest instant he thought he was back in California. He smiled and walked over to Tamsin, standing by the jukebox. "Pretending that it's still summer?"

She smiled politely. "No. Just enjoying a good song."

Ronnie leaned over to inspect the music selection. "There's a lot of good stuff in there."

"I know; and if I'm lucky, I just might play it all tonight."

"You can't just stand here all night." 

"Sure I can," she replied with a flippant little smile.

"No, you can't. Why don't you play pool with us?" he suggested impulsively.

Tamsin looked surprised at the invitation. "With you?"

"Sure. The guys probably have a table by now. You'll know some of them from class. How about it?"

"_There_ you are, Sunshine!" Petey's loud voice said behind him. "Ry and I were lookin' all over for you outside, man! Come on, let's go!"

"But—" Ronnie looked over his shoulder at Tamsin as Petey and Ryan led him away. She smiled, shook her head and waved him on. He sighed and turned back to his friends, who were looking at him curiously. "Whassamatter, Sunshine?" Petey asked. "Forgot something?"

"No," he replied. "Come on, let's go shoot some pool." 

* * *

Ronnie saw her again the very next day. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon and he had driven his mother downtown, then wandered into a bookstore while Mrs. Bass did her shopping in the supermarket across the street.

He found Tamsin examining the display on a shelf near the back of the cool, dim and rather dusty shop. "Hi," he said.

"Hi." She smiled briefly at him before picking out a book, skimming through the summary on the back, and returning it to the shelf.

"Haven't found anything good?" Ronnie asked, noting that her hands were empty.

"I'm trying to control myself. I think I'm addicted," Tamsin confided mock-seriously.

He chuckled. "There are worse things to be addicted to."

"Have you finished _Siddhartha_ yet?" she asked.

"No," Ronnie replied, pleased that she remembered what he was reading. "He's still sitting by the river thinking about his life."

"That's the best part."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool," he agreed. "Anyway, I'm just looking around, waiting for my mom to finish shopping. It could take a while," he added. "You want to grab a Coke or something?" It would be great to have someone to talk to while he was stuck waiting for his mother.

Tamsin's eyes widened and she checked her watch. "Uh-oh, I can't. I have to meet someone in about five minutes."

Ronnie arched an eyebrow. "Someone sure works fast," he teased.

"What? Oh." She made a face at him as she caught on to his meaning. "Very funny. I'm afraid I really have to go, though," she said apologetically. "I lost track of time while I was in here. I told you I was addicted."

"Maybe some other time, then. See you in school."

Tamsin smiled and nodded. "Yeah. See you in school." 

Ronnie watched her walk briskly toward the door. On her way out, however, she passed by the bargain table. Tamsin glanced through the books stacked there, picked out one, and made a pit stop at the cashier.

* * *

"How's school going, sweetie?" asked Diana Lee's husky voice on the other end of the line. There was a muffled cough.

"Fine, Mom." Tamsin tucked the receiver under her ear and grinned at Uncle Jon, who was tossing that night's chicken Caesar salad nearby. "I've got this _great_ English teacher; and my Visual Arts teacher is finally showing up tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited about that."

"Made any new friends?"

"Yeah, I've met a few people." Even as she said this, Tamsin rolled her eyes. She was glad Emma and her friends were trying to include her in their group, but it was painfully obvious that she didn't have much in common with them. On the other hand, Robin's friends had been pretty nice. "Someone's encouraging me to join the literary magazine and I'm thinking of giving it a shot."

"Met any cute boys?"

__

"Mo-om." 

"Well, have you?" her mother persisted. "After spending most of your life in an all-girls school, I would have thought that the first thing you'd do is look for boys."

"I'm still getting settled in. I haven't had the chance to look at any boys." 

"Ah, you work so slowly, my dear. When I was your age, I had already had—"

"—ten boyfriends, I know," Tamsin finished flatly. "Thanks a lot, Mom."

"Isn't there even _one_ who's caught your eye?" her mother asked plaintively.

__

"No."

"Well, if you refuse to tell me, I'm sure I can get it out of Jonathan. And he can look up that boy's file for me, too."

"Uncle Jon doesn't know anything."

"Well, then, he can help me guess."

"Mom, I'm not going to be here all that long. I may even be back there by the next semester. There's no use in my having a boyfriend while I'm here."

"Every girl needs at least one fling in her life, sweetie!" Great, her mother was in her empowered-woman-enjoying-life mode. "One great tragic romance that she can remember fondly when she's old and gray and married to a fat slob in an undershirt."

"I can't believe my mother is telling me to have a fling." Tamsin giggled as Uncle Jon looked at her incredulously. "Hey, Mom, Uncle Jon is giving me strange looks now, so we'd better talk about something else. How are you? Are you eating properly?"

"I practically have a charge account at that health-food place down the street," her mother assured her, laughing. "And I have some auditions lined up, but my usual reading partner is missing, so I have to prepare for them all by myself."

Tamsin felt a sudden pang as she imagined her mother pacing in front of the sofa, trailing one of her Isadora Duncan scarves, and practicing lines all by herself. She'd been helping her mother practice ever since she learned to read. "I told you sending me away was a mistake," she said, trying to keep her tone light.

A deep sigh came over the wire. "No, sweetie, it wasn't. Trust me. Put Jonathan on the line, will you?"

"OK. I'll talk to you again soon, Mom. I love you." Tamsin extended the receiver to Uncle Jon. "She wants to talk to you."

He smiled and took the receiver. "Thanks, Tam. Go set the table for dinner, won't you?" 

* * *

"Open the window a bit wider, Jeannie."

Tamsin watched Jeannie do as she was told. Suppressing a yawn, she dug around in her bag for her Physics textbook. She was desperate to stay awake. She was sick of looking at drab blue tile. And Mrs. Gardner had hinted at a surprise quiz last Friday.

It had not been a very good day thus far. Last night's phone conversation with her mother left Tamsin feeling a bit mixed up. On one hand, she was happy to have spoken to her; but on the other, her mother's behavior toward the end of their conversation made her feel just the slightest bit unwanted. _"Of course you're not unwanted, sweetie,"_ Uncle Jon had told her at dinner, after he'd hung up. _"She's just going through a rough patch right now and doesn't want you to worry about her."_

"If she's going through a 'rough patch,' then I'm going to worry about her, wherever I may be," Tamsin muttered rebelliously.

"What was that?" Miranda asked her.

"Nothing," she replied, pasting a smile on her face. Determined to change the subject, she turned to Emma. "So, did you and Gerry go out last night?"

The blonde girl smiled. "Yeah, we did."

"How did you know Emma was going out with Gerry, Tammy?" Jeannie wanted to know.

"Oh, we were only planning it right in front of her at the Snack n' Cue," Emma laughed. "I'm really sorry about that, Tamsin."

"Forget about it. I had a pretty good time even though you practically _abandoned_ me," Tamsin joked. 

"Yeah, we adopted her," Robin said. "She hung out in the parking lot with me and Corey and Liz. It was a lot of fun."

"Liz Lindros is _weird_," Miranda said in distaste, puffing on her cigarette, "even if she is Eddie's younger sister." Dark-haired, good-looking and popular, Eddie Lindros played offensive lineman for the Titans. His sister, on the other hand, had her own group of friends.

"_I_ thought she was really nice," Tamsin replied. In fact, it was Liz who was trying to get her to join the literary magazine.

The redheaded girl coolly met her gaze in the girls' room mirror. "Of course you would, Tammy," she said. "You're so nice, you can't find anything bad to say about anyone."

* * *

TC Williams High School held its pep rally on the afternoon of September15th. Instead of rushing off to enjoy their weekends, the student body assembled in the TC Williams quadrangle to watch the cheerleaders show off their new routines. "We used to have pep rallies at my old school, too," Tamsin said as she stood in the enthusiastic mass of students with Emma, Lisa and Sally Jane, "but they were nothing like this."

"I guess it's rowdier because there are boys in the crowd," Emma said as Miranda somersaulted off the top of the human pyramid to loud male catcalls.

"The Titans are coming!" Lisa squealed as the cheerleaders made their exit with one final flourish of their pompoms. The crowd went wild as the principal, Mr. Hilliard, introduced the TC Williams Titans and the 1971 Virginia State Champions danced into the quadrangle. 

__

Everywhere we go

People want to know

Who we are

So we tell them

We are the Titans

The high and mighty Titans…

Tamsin watched incredulously as the phalanx of bulky-shouldered boys in red-and-white uniforms slid to the side in perfect unison. "What are they _doing_?"

"That's their warm-up!" Lisa explained, watching raptly. "They do it at the beginning of every game. Aren't they cute? Isn't Alan great?"

"Good grief." For some reason, it reminded her of the last time she had seen her mother's female impersonator friends perform the can-can.

When the dance number was finally over, Mr. Hilliard introduced the Titans' coaching staff, led by Coaches Boone and Yoast. Gerry was introduced as a special assistant coach. He beamed and waved at them as Emma and her friends cheered themselves hoarse.

"Who's that with the coaches?" Tamsin asked, pointing to a young girl of about ten or so with a wild mass of curly blonde hair.

"That's Sheryl, Coach Yoast's girl," Emma told her. "She helps out with the team, too."

"Oh." She laughed as Sheryl Yoast whooped and cheered along with everyone else. "Cute kid."

"Tough, too; but then you have to be, to boss the Titans around." 

* * *

Alan was still singing, long after the pep rally was over and the Titans had changed out of their uniforms. "We are the Titans, the high and mighty Titans…"

Ronnie laughed as he and his friends left the locker room. "Quit it, Alan, or I'll never get that song out of my head."

"Sorry," the other boy replied with a grin on his boyish face. "I'm still high from the pep rally."

"Imagine if we'd tried to do our warm-up number last year," Blue said.

"We didn't even _have_ a pep rally last year." At the beginning of the previous school year, it had been well nigh impossible to get black and white together peacefully.

"So where are we going now, y'all?" Petey asked. 

"Can we wait until Emma joins us before we decide?" Gerry suggested. "She may have some ideas."

"Well, sure, Mr. Special Assistant Coach, sir; so long as she doesn't suggest goin' to Hal's," the black boy replied, arching an eyebrow at Ronnie. "You ain't _never_ gonna get me in there!"

"I keep telling you, man, _I didn't know_." Ronnie rolled his eyes as his friends laughed. He was pretty sure Petey was never going to let him forget his slip-up from last year; but given the shabby way they had been treated, he didn't blame his friend one bit.

As they exited the gym, he saw Tamsin standing in the hallway with some of the other Titans' friends and girlfriends. Standing next to her was Emma Hoyt, smiling expectantly instead of looking suspicious and disapproving like she had for most of last year. 

"Hey, Emma," Gerry greeted his girlfriend as the Titans joined her group and the couples paired off.

"Hi, Gerry," she replied, then smiled at the other boys. "Hi, guys. Great show at the pep rally this afternoon." Now that he knew her better, Ronnie actually found Emma kind of nice. He was hoping her getting back together with Gerry would make him go easier on the Titans at practice. 

A guy can dream, can't he?

"So, Emma," her boyfriend said, "we can't decide where to hang out tonight. You girls got any ideas?"

"Well, Sharon here was just telling us about Ma Rose's, this new integrated place downtown," Emma said, gesturing toward Sharon Williams, Big Julius' tall, pretty girlfriend. "We can go there if y'all don't want to go to the Hill." The Hill was a favorite hangout and make-out spot among Alexandria's white teens. Ronnie had gone there a few times over the summer with Miranda.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Petey declared.

"I've heard that Ma Rose's has good food," Ronnie told Tamsin.

"Yeah, I've heard that, too." She smiled politely. "I'm sure you'll have a great time."

"Why? Aren't you coming with us?" 

"Aw, why not?" Sharon asked when Tamsin shook her head.

"I can't," she said, looking slightly embarrassed. "I've already got a ride home."

"Can't you get another?"

"I can take you home," Ronnie volunteered.

But there was no convincing her. "I can't. I'm really sorry."

"Maybe another time, then?" Emma asked.

"Yeah. That would be great," Tamsin said, smiling again. She checked her watch and looked apologetically at everybody. "I'd better get going. I still need to get my stuff out of my locker."

"If your ride leaves without you, we'll be in the parking lot," Petey told her.

She laughed ruefully. "I'll keep that in mind. 'Bye, everybody. Have a nice weekend."

Ronnie watched her jog away amid a chorus of goodbyes before following his friends to the school parking lot. Once outside, they split up into smaller groups and Ronnie led Alan, Petey and Petey's girlfriend of the moment (he couldn't remember her name) over to his father's red Dodge Charger. "Hey, look, it's Mr. Graham," Alan said, waving at their English teacher, who was standing beside a Day-Glo green Volkswagen Beetle. The teacher waved back at them, but made no move to get inside his car.

"Why isn't he leaving yet?" Petey wondered. 

They found out a moment later. Apparently, Mr. Graham had been waiting for someone — they saw her come out of the school and walk over to him. They saw him give her a hug, seat her in the car before getting in himself, and drive away.

It was Tamsin.


	4. Just My Imagination Running Away With Me

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans and Dick Dale belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter comes from the 1971 song by the Temptations, and the poem featured herein was indeed written by the ancient Greek poetess Sappho. I only own Tamsin and Jonathan, miscellaneous Titans and TC Williams students, and Gerry's pork chop.

****

Technical Notes: I must warn you that the English class scene in this chapter is a bit scholarly. It was derived from a discussion I had in my own high school English class, many years ago.

****

Introductory Remarks: Thanks to Aphrodite, iceeblue and Lela for reviewing!

__

Chapter Three — Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)

Coach Boone's whistle blew shrilly, signaling the end of football practice. Beside him, Gerry rubbed his ringing ear. "That will be enough for today," Boone announced to his players, "but you can bet your bottom dollar that Mr. Bertier will be adding up all the miles you owe me and you will be running them _all_ at the next practice! Now hit the showers!"

The Titans began to jog off the field. "Sunshine," Gerry said as the quarterback passed, "what's up with you today, man? You've never missed that pass before."

Ronnie's sweaty face was apologetic. "Sorry, man. I guess I was kind of distracted today."

"It doesn't look like that _tai chi_ stuff you keep doing is helping any."

"Well, we all have our off days, don't we?"

"Correction — we all have our off _day_, which means you've just used up yours!"

Boone grinned as Gerry took the other boy to task about his performance. Over Gerry's head, Ronnie gave the coach a look that asked _Are you going to let him keep at me like this?_ "Couldn't have said it better myself," Boone murmured to Coach Yoast, who had just walked up.

Yoast chuckled. "Boy's turning into you, Herman."

"You're saying that like it's a bad thing."

"And another thing," Gerry was saying, "that hair is getting _way_ too long! It better be cut proper the next time you set foot on this field, you hear me?"

Ronnie made a face at the coaches before giving Gerry a smart salute. "Sir, yes, sir!"

"Good man. Now get out of here!"

Yoast smiled and waved Ronnie on. "Hit the showers, son."

* * *

"Someone got told!" Blue teased as Ronnie entered the locker room. 

"Not so hot today, were you, Sunshine?" Petey piped up, grinning.

"Shut up, fellas," Ronnie said in a tired voice, dumping his helmet in his locker and then struggling with his jersey. 

"Yeah, leave him alone; he's just having an off day," Eddie Lindros, Lewie Lastik's replacement, told the others.

Ronnie laughed briefly and then tackled his shoulder pads. "Correction — Gerry says we each get _one_ off day, which means I've just used up mine."

"Bertier's off his wheelchair," joked Ryan Hunter, the newest addition to the defensive line. "Better talk to that friend of yours, Julius."

"Hey, if it's going to make y'all get off your behinds and work a little harder," Big Julius told them, "I'm all for it."

"What's up with you, anyway?" Petey asked Ronnie when he returned from the showers. "You haven't been playing so good lately."

The other boy shrugged and pulled on a T-shirt. "I guess I was a little distracted."

"No, you were a _lot_ distracted, and we all wanna know why!" The black boy cocked his head. "So why were you a lot distracted?"

"It can't be grades, because the year's just started," Alan noted.

"It ain't family, because your parents are sickeningly sweet on each other," Big Julius said, getting into the swing of things.

"And it ain't money, 'cause just yesterday you were bragging about that big bonus you got from Witherspoon's Christmas tree farm."

"So it must be a girl!" Petey concluded jubilantly. 

"Well, I'll be John Browned!" Blue crowed. 

"I never said this was about a girl," Ronnie said as the Titans burst into applause.

"What else can this be about?" Eddie pointed out. "We've already considered all the possibilities and all signs point to women trouble." He grinned mischievously. "So, spill it, Sunshine. Are you thinking of getting back together with Miranda?" 

"No."

"Why not?" Alan asked. "She's a real knockout, and I think she still likes you. Plus she's head cheerleader, you're quarterback — it all fits together perfectly!"

Ronnie rolled his eyes and sighed. The quarterback-and-cheerleader cliché was the worst reason to get back with Miranda that he had ever heard. "It's not Miranda."

"So who is it?" Petey pressed.

He sighed and shrugged on his jacket. "Look, guys, I don't really feel like talking about this. I've just met her, she doesn't seem to like me, and let's just leave it at that for now, OK?"

__

"Aha!" Blue cried, grinning. "It's that new girl in our English class — Tamsin Lee!"

__

Of all the dumb luck. Ronnie blushed, bringing more applause from the Titans. "Now how did you come up with that?"

"Elementary, my dear Sunshine." The big black boy smugly puffed out his chest. "Number One: you said you've just met her, so she must be new. Unless you're going after freshmen or that Czech exchange student, Boris Czarkovsky, Tamsin is the only likely choice. Number Two: you also said she doesn't seem to like you. I saw you talking to Tamsin the other day after class, and she wasn't giggling and falling all over herself as expected." He grinned. "Am I right, lover boy?"

__

"Tamsin Lee?!" Petey sputtered. "But—but she's _weird_!"

"My sister thinks she's nice," Eddie said.

"But Liz is weird, too," Ryan said before catching a towel in the face.

"Sunshine ain't exactly Joe Average himself, you know," Big Julius pointed out with a chuckle.

"_Still_, you—you _can't_!" Petey ranted on. "Didn't we see her leave school with Mr. Graham after the pep rally?" His face fell at Ronnie's dejected expression. "Oh…_oh_, man. I'm sorry."

"Well, I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent explanation for that," Eddie declared.

"If there was," Petey said, "then why couldn't she just tell us that she was going to be with him in the first place? I was there when Sunshine asked her out, and all she said was she couldn't."

"I didn't ask her out," Ronnie said. "I just asked her to join us."

"Shut up, man. We're talking here."

"Maybe they live on the same street and he's just doing her parents a favor," Alan suggested.

"Yeah. There can't be anything fishy going on between Tamsin and Mr. Graham," Eddie reiterated. "Teachers can't date students — it's corrupting minors or something like that. And she doesn't look like, you know, _that_ kind of girl."

"But you never can tell with those Bohemian types," Ryan pointed out.

Ronnie frowned. "Just because she's different doesn't mean she's easy."

"She's been givin' _you_ a hard time, that's for sure!" Blue laughed.

Petey suddenly snapped his fingers. "Even if it _were_ true, Sunshine can still steal Tamsin away. They ain't married yet, and Mr. Graham can't fail him for stealing away his girlfriend because that would be unprofessional behavior."

Alan laughed. "Lord, Petey, I bet you can find angles in a circle."

"But he's right," Big Julius said. "All's fair in love and war; and if Graham flunks you because of that, you can protest, and it'll all come out in the open."

Ronnie shook his head. "Then Tamsin's reputation will be ruined."

"Well, what else are you gonna do, Sunshine?" Petey demanded. "Sit around and mope? Send the season down the toilet because of a broken heart?"

"Hey, calm down, fellas," Eddie said. "You're all acting like it's already true."

"Just trying to consider all the possibilities, Ed," Big Julius told the other boy. "Look, Sunshine, Petey's right. You can still try to ask Tamsin out."

"Wow, I feel like I'm in huddle," Ryan observed to no one in particular. 

"Ssshhh." The tall black linebacker looked around at his friends. He had his "game face" on. "And y'all can help by bein' extra nice to Tamsin. Don't give her a hard time and don't say _nothing_ about her and the teacher. Got that?"

"Of course we're not going to say anything," Eddie objected. "It's not true."

"No talking in the huddle! Now, we need to get Gerry into this. He can ask Emma to find out the real story between her and Mr. Graham. And maybe Rev can try and preach to Tamsin about, I don't know, chastity or something."

That was the last straw. Even Ronnie had to laugh. "Julius, that's insane! You guys aren't seriously considering doing this, are you?" he asked everyone else.

"Sure we are, Sunshine." Petey grinned. "After all, what are friends for?"

* * *

Tamsin didn't know it, but the Titans' plan went operational the very next day. She was walking briskly, minding her own business, when a heavy arm draped itself across her shoulders. "Hey, sweetness! How we doin' this fine morning?" 

The arm belonged to Petey Jones, the obnoxious boy in her homeroom. Tamsin looked up at him, confused. He'd never spoken to her before. "OK, thanks," she said politely. 

"That's cool." He grinned at her and patted her head fondly. "Now, ain't you the cutest little thing? I bet I can put you in my pocket."

"I wouldn't recommend it," she replied, smoothing her hair where he had mussed it.

Petey laughed loudly. "Feisty, too. No way are you goin' in my pocket — I don't want you gettin' near anything dangerous." He chuckled when Tamsin blushed. "What's this? Why're you blushing? You ain't used to having your boyfriend talk to you like that?" He waggled an eyebrow suggestively.

"Uh, no." She cleared her throat. "Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I really need to get going." She had promised to meet Emma in the cafeteria and was already running a little late.

"Yeah, you don't want to be late, now, do you?" he teased. "After all, you don't got no transfer card to save you this time."

She made a face at him. Of course he would remind her of her spectacular entrance on the first day of school. "Exactly."

He laughed and gave her a friendly slap on the back, which nearly sent her sprawling. "See you around, then, baby sugar."

"Yeah, see you." 

Tamsin had just begun to wonder what that had been all about when she heard someone else calling her name. "Hey, Tamsin!" One of the boys in her English class was waving at her from his locker.

She managed a polite smile. "Hi…I'm sorry, I can't seem to recall your name."

"It's Jerry, but you can call me Rev," the boy supplied, a smile on his handsome mocha-colored face. "I'm in your English class."

"Yeah. I know."

"So, what's up, sister?" he asked her. "You looked like you had a lot on your mind back there."

"Um—" There was a genuinely concerned look on Rev's face now, but Tamsin didn't want to confide in a total stranger. "Rough night," she said. "Lots of homework."

"Ah, I see. Well, if you need any tutoring or anything, I'd be happy to help." He chuckled. "I'm no genius, but I must say I helped get a guy into college."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." 

"All right then, sister. See you in English." 

Tamsin waved politely and breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached the cafeteria and immediately located Emma, who already had her lunch tray. "Everyone's acting so _weird_ today!" she told the blonde girl.

"More so than yesterday?" her friend laughed, then poked at the paperback under Tamsin's arm. "Haven't we told you that it's rude to read at the table?" Emma reminded her with a grin. Even though she was eating lunch regularly with Emma and her crowd, Tamsin still brought books to read while eating. They helped her tune out the more inane, vicious and annoying parts of the conversation. "Well, don't worry, you won't have use for that today. You're sitting with me and Gerry."

"What?" That was a first. "Are you sure that's OK?" 

"It's perfectly fine," the blonde girl assured her as they found a free table and sat down.

"You sure I won't be in the way?"

"_No._ In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Gerry asked his friends to join us, too. Of course, you can always go back and sit with Miranda and the others…" 

Tamsin made a face at her friend as Gerry Bertier wheeled up to their table with his lunch tray in his lap. "Hi, Gerry," Emma said, smiling at her boyfriend.

"Hey, Emma. I see we have a guest," Gerry noted as he put his tray down at the end of the table. "Hi, Tamsin."

"Hi, Gerry." Tamsin smiled wryly. "I hope you don't mind Emma dragging me along. I can sit somewhere else if you want to be alone."

"It's perfectly fine," Gerry said. "In fact, I asked my friends to join us, too."

"See?" Emma asked. 

"Hey, sweetness," Petey greeted Tamsin with a grin, sliding onto the bench beside her. 

She scooted away from him, only to bump up against someone who had sat down on her other side. When she turned toward him in surprise, Ronnie smiled down at her. "Hey, Tamsin."

"Hi," she replied. The other Titans, who'd appeared as if by magic, whooped and pounded on the table. 

Emma caught her eye. There was something disturbing in the other girl's smile. Her glance also kept skittering to Tamsin's right. What on earth was she trying to say? She glanced to the right, where Ronnie was sitting, then looked back at Emma. The blonde girl nodded enthusiastically.

Tamsin suddenly felt as if she had landed in some fringe-theater comedy, and she was the only one who didn't know her lines. "What is this, a pick-off play?" she joked weakly.

"'Course not, sweetness," Petey told her cheerfully, "we're _football_ players! This here's a _squeeze_ play!" And he made as if he intended to sandwich her between him and Ronnie. The Titans whooped again as Tamsin scooted closer to the blond boy's side to escape getting squeezed.

"Sorry," she mumbled, moving away again.

"No problem. Do you know everyone? Well," Ronnie said when she shook her head, "you already know Gerry, Alan, Petey, Rev and Blue from class; over there's Big Julius, and at the end we've got Ryan and Eddie."

"Hi, Tamsin!" Ryan and Eddie chorused brightly.

"Hey, Tamsin," Blue asked her loudly from Ronnie's other side, "how come you let Petey call you 'sweetness' while ol' Sunshine here has to call you 'Tamsin'?" His teammates whooped and pounded on the table again as Ronnie hid his face with one hand and shook his head.

"For your information," she told him crisply, "I never _let_ Petey call me 'sweetness;' and if I ever tried to tell him not to call me that, I doubt that he'd listen. After all, the only time he does as he's told is when the person giving orders has a whistle around his neck, right?"

"And sometimes, not even then," Gerry added as the Titans burst out laughing. 

"Thanks a lot," Petey said flatly.

Sensing an argument, Rev grinned at his friends and changed the subject. "Hey, have y'all seen that petition that's going around? The one for the school to install a jukebox in the cafeteria?"

"Heck, no!" Blue exclaimed. "Where is it? I'll sign it!"

"Me, too!" Alan chimed in. "I wonder if they'll let us pick out the songs that'll be in it?"

"I hope not," the big black boy told him, "if _you're_ doing the picking!"

"Why?" Tamsin asked. "What's wrong if he picks all the songs?" 

"Girl, you don't want to know!" 

"It'll be difficult to have a jukebox in here, though," Big Julius observed. "You'll have everyone fighting to sit near it so they can dictate what songs to play. And, as you can see," he added wryly, "not everyone digs the same stuff."

"Well, so long as they put in some Dick Dale and someone plays it every so often," Ronnie said, smiling at Tamsin, "I'm happy."

"I say they ought to fix up the food here first before fooling around with jukeboxes," Gerry said, grimacing at his lunch. "I think I recognize this pork chop from last year."

* * *

Hanging out with Tamsin during lunch made Ronnie feel a bit better that afternoon. For the first time that week, he was glad to be going to English. Mr. Graham was a good teacher, but it had been difficult to enjoy his class after last week's pep rally.

"Hey, Tamsin," he greeted her as he passed her seat in the front row. Tamsin looked up at him and smiled. She didn't seem to be sending him the same signals Miranda had the first time she'd met him, but then she wasn't shutting him out either, which was definitely a good sign.

"Looks like we're getting there!" Gerry whispered with a grin. Ronnie grinned back and slapped his friend a low five as Mr. Graham entered the classroom.

"All right, good afternoon, everyone," the teacher said briskly. "All of you who are standing, don't bother sitting down; all of you who are seated, get up; and will someone kindly help Gerry? We're holding class outside today."

"Aw, man, what kind of hippie shit is this _now_?" they heard Ray Budds mutter as the class stood.

With Blue guiding Gerry's wheelchair down the special ramps that had been added to the stairs for his use, Mr. Graham led his class into the courtyard behind the school. "This looks like a good place," he said as he selected a shady spot under a tree. "Sit down, everyone, and form a circle."

There was a scramble for the nearby benches, but many chose to sit on the grass. Tamsin sat cross-legged on the ground, somewhere near Gerry's feet, and Ronnie sat across the circle from her.

Mr. Graham smiled at everyone. "Comfortable? Good," he said when no one complained. "Now, kindly open your books to page 11, where you will find the poem 'One Girl' by Sappho, whom we all know was one of the few known women writers from the time of the ancient Greeks. Wilma, will you read the poem aloud?"

The girl sitting next to Ronnie nodded, cleared her throat, and began to read.

****

One Girl

Like the sweet apple that reddens on the topmost bough,

A-top on the top-most twig, -- which the pluckers forgot, somehow, --

Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it til now.

Like the wild hyacinth flower which on the hills is found,

Which the passing feet of the shepherds tear and wound,

Until the purple blossom is trodden into the ground.

"Thank you, Wilma," the teacher said when she had finished. "Any thoughts on the selection?" he then asked the class at large.

Gerry frowned. "I don't know what the writer was talking about, Mr. Graham. How can that poem be about one girl? The poem's describing two very different people."

Mr. Graham nodded and smiled. "Interesting observation, Gerry. What kind of people does Sappho describe in this poem?"

Ronnie raised his hand. "Well," he said, glancing thoughtfully up at the tree branches overhead, "first you've got the one who's symbolized by the 'sweet apple' at the top of the tree – she's unreachable except to him who's willing to climb; and when she's picked, it's all worth it." He shot Blue a wry glance when his friend hooted teasingly. "And, uh, the other type is exactly the opposite. Since the girl symbolized by the 'wild flower' is on the ground, so to speak, she's easily picked and trampled."

"You mean she's easy, period," Ray remarked, and some of his buddies laughed.

Ignoring the last remark, the teacher nodded and smiled at Ronnie. "Very good, Sunshine. Now, Wilma, are you a 'sweet apple' or a 'wild flower'?"

Wilma blushed as most of the boys catcalled. "Well, sir," she said softly, "I'd say I'm an apple."

"All right; how about you, May? Sweet apple or wild flower?" Mr. Graham asked a few more girls whether they thought of themselves as "sweet apples" or "wild flowers," and they all predictably put themselves in the former category. "So, we have descriptions of two _very different_ types of people in the selection we read today," he said, "yet Sappho entitled her poem 'One Girl.' Why?"

"Because she was high on something?" one of Ray's friends suggested.

"Maybe she was schizophrenic," one girl said.

Tamsin raised her hand and Mr. Graham gave her the same polite smile he used on all his other students. "Yes, Tamsin?"

"Sappho described 'sweet apples' and 'wild flowers,' but called her poem 'One Girl' because every girl is both," she said. "Society dictates that we be like 'sweet apples,' ladylike and pure, but we've all got a bit of the 'wild flower' in all of us, too."

"Now _that's_ an interesting observation," Ray said, leering playfully at her.

She looked frostily back at him. "I'm not saying that all girls are essentially easy. The 'sweet apple' can symbolize both society's ideal of the modest female _as well as_ the self-respect that every good mother teaches her daughter. The 'wild flower,' on the other hand, refers to both the 'easy' woman you're talking about _and_ a person's capacity to be close to the earth, to enjoy life. A girl _can_ be a wild flower, but only when she _chooses_ to be; and for me, it's going to be when the right guy picks me off the tree."

"Amen, sister!" one of the black girls in the class called out, and several people burst into applause.

"This isn't just about girls," Tamsin went on. "It's about people in general. The poem tells us that there's always more to a person than meets the eye. Mr. Graham is more than just a teacher; Ronnie and Blue are more than just football players; and I'm sure Ray is more than a bigoted, sexist goon, even though that has yet to be proven."

Ronnie grinned as the rest of the class laughed and applauded some more. Alan, seated behind him, gave him a nudge. Even though she had mentioned him along with Blue, she had singled him out nonetheless and it was another good sign.

"Thank you, Tamsin, that will be all," Mr. Graham said firmly. He smiled indulgently at the rest of the class. "Yes, despite the veiled insult at the end, Miss Lee hit the nail on the head; but I'm sure all the hullabaloo about racial integration has already taught you that people aren't always what they seem."

* * *

Ronnie took his time gathering up his books after the lesson. "You guys go on ahead," he murmured to Alan. "I'll catch up."

The smaller boy glanced over at Tamsin, who was still seated, and winked. "I hope you don't."

He grinned. "Go away, you're cramping my style."

When Alan finally left, Ronnie continued to linger, pretending to check if he had all his books and then dropping down to retie (and double-knot) both his shoelaces. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Mr. Graham help Tamsin to her feet and talk to her briefly before they went their separate ways.

He stood up quickly when Tamsin began to walk back to the school building. "Hey, Tamsin!"

She turned, saw him, and smiled. "Hey."

"I really liked what you said in class today," he told her. "You know, about there being more to a person than meets the eye."

"Thank you. I really meant it."

"I could tell."

Ronnie smiled down at her, but before he could say any more, someone had interrupted the conversation. "Someone sure has her chastity belt on too tight today," Ray said as he swaggered over.

"Now, Ray, what would you know about my chastity belt?" Tamsin asked him pleasantly.

"I know lots of things."

"I doubt that chastity is one of them," she sniffed. Ronnie tried unsuccessfully to hide a snicker.

The stocky, dark-haired boy glared at them. "Well, now, isn't this nice," he sneered. "First we get blacks, then hippies, and now we've got a bra-burnin' Chink here in Alexandria."

"Hey, pick on someone your own size, Budds." Ronnie narrowed his eyes at his former teammate and would have taken a step toward him if Tamsin hadn't dumped her books on his foot. "Would you like to come over here and repeat that?" she asked Ray.

The other boy smirked. He was about a foot taller and eighty pounds heavier than the small girl challenging him. "I don't fight girls," he told her.

She arched a mocking eyebrow. "Chicken."

"I would have stomped you into the ground and you know it."

"Hey, _enough_." Ronnie told them firmly. Tamsin certainly looked like she knew how to take care of herself, but he didn't want to risk her getting killed before he could even ask her out. 

"I can't believe what's happened to this town," Ray said. "Alexandria's goin' to the dogs."

"Then leave," he told the other boy flatly. When Ray finally stalked away, he turned on Tamsin. "You're crazy, you know that?" he said as he bent down to help her pick up her books. "Ray Budds is at least twice your size! He could have killed you!"

"Of course not," she replied. "Besides, I knew he wouldn't go for it anyway." She looked at him apologetically. "Did I drop these on your foot?"

"Yes."

"Oh, God, I'm sorry."

"No problem." He smiled wryly. "I knocked you over on the first day of school, remember? I'd say we're even." Tamsin laughed, picked up the last book, and they both stood. Ronnie took a deep breath. "_So_, as I was saying when we were so rudely interrupted…would you go out with me?"

She gaped. "With you?"

"It doesn't have to be anything big right away," he added hastily. "We could just go for ice cream or a burger or something. I can give you a ride home afterward."

"You mean today? Right now?"

"Yeah…" Ronnie's hopes plummeted as her face fell. "What's the matter?"

She blushed. "This may sound really stupid, but I'm cooking dinner tonight and I can't get out of it."

"Oh."

Tamsin looked pained. "I'm not making up excuses. I really—"

"Hey." He managed a smile. "You're needed at home. I understand."

She bit her lip. "I'm sorry."

"No problem. I'll see you around."

* * *

Scrimmage stopped as Boone's whistle blew, rattling Gerry's eardrums. "What are you doing, Sunshine?" the black coach bellowed. "You're supposed to _pass_, not run the play yourself!"

"Sorry, Coach," Ronnie tried to explain, "but I thought—"

"Do your thinking _off_ the field, son! While you are on it, _I_ am the brain! _I_ do all your thinking for you! Is that clear?"

The quarterback flushed. None of the Titans liked being bawled out by Boone, especially in front of the others, and he was no different. "Yes, sir," he mumbled as his teammates stood around silently, shifting from foot to foot.

"I didn't hear you, boy!" Boone called back. _"Is—that—clear?"_

"Sir, yes, SIR!" Ronnie shouted, tossing off a terse, defiant salute.

The coach stared the frustrated boy down. "You know my policy about perfection, Sunshine," he told him quietly. "Get running. The rest of you are dismissed."

"What's gotten into that boy?" Paul "Doc" Hines, the Titans' offensive line coach, asked as Ronnie threw off his helmet and began to jog around the field. 

"I don't know," Boone replied, snapping his gum as he watched the boy run. Ordinarily, Sunshine took his punishment like a man who understood that he'd done something wrong. Today, there was anger on his face, in his every movement. It was highly unusual for the easygoing, disciplined boy. "Something's bothering him."

"If he keeps this up, we'll have to start Furness at QB," Sheryl Yoast said as she stood watching at her father's side. "And the first game of the season is against Groveton!"

Boone nodded as the other Titans walked past them toward the showers. "We have to do something about Sunshine, y'all," Blue, carrying Ronnie's discarded helmet, was saying to the others. "We'll drop right to last place if he goes on like this."

"If someone will cook dinner at her house for just one night, I'll ask Tamsin out for him _and_ pay for everything myself!" Petey said. "Heck, maybe I'll even do the cooking, too!"

"Petey, if _you_ did the cooking," Gerry said as he wheeled off the field with his friends, "her father will never let her out of the house again."

Boone traded looks with his fellow coaches and groaned. Grades they could help with and problems at home, they could handle, but broken hearts were another story.

****

Concluding Remarks: Up next, Sunshine spends a miserable week and the Titans have their first game of the season! 


	5. I Can See Clearly Now

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Edward Lear and Janis Joplin belong to themselves. The fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_, as well as the film _101 Dalmatians_, belong to Disney. _RtT_ also inspired the "doesn't matter" bit at the end of this chapter. The title of this chapter comes from the 1972 Johnny Nash song; and while we're on the subject of song titles, "Mrs. Robinson" belongs to Simon & Garfunkel and "Me and Mrs. Jones" to Billy Paul. _Lady Chatterley's Lover_ and _Lolita_ are books by DH Lawrence and Vladimir Nabokov, respectively; the Charger a vehicle produced by the Dodge Company; NYU a school I do not go to and _The Graduate_ a movie I do not own. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, their house, Tamsin's mother, Emma's friends, and the Snack n' Cue. Oh, and I guess I own all of Gartner Street, assuming the real Alexandria doesn't have one :D

****

Technical Notes: I reiterate what I said in Chapter 3 about the possibility of holding something other than Spirit Week later in the school year than usual. They appear to do the same things, though. And just to explain: Tamsin rides to school with Mr. Graham, but takes the school bus home so she isn't stuck in school if he has to work late. OK?

I know nothing about _tai chi_. The positions mentioned in this story are taken from a list provided in www.wfdesign.com. I also have no idea what Alexandria's local paper is called. I just made the name up. 

__

EDIT 11-25-02: The football scene is this chapter has been modified slightly to correct certain technical inaccuracies. Many thanks to my football beta, Livia Liana!

****

Introductory Remarks: Thanks to Doyles-always and the repeat reviewers! I'm glad you're all enjoying this story. I'm having a lot of fun writing it! Don't worry, iceeblue, this fic is definitely going to be finished. I've got the final chapter all planned out in my head! 

On a totally unrelated note, they showed _Driven_ on HBO Asia this past month and Kip Pardue was _adorable_. I wonder if it's not too late to give Sunshine eyeglasses…

__

Chapter Four — I Can See Clearly Now

__

He had asked her out.

Tamsin stared blankly at her Social Studies book as she mentally relived last week's events for the millionth time. 

Giving up on her reading, she sighed quietly, so as not to disturb the other girls, and sagged against the back wall of the third floor girls' room. Emma had been absent since yesterday, so Tamsin had been unable to talk to anyone about what had happened with Ronnie; but then again, she wasn't sure if the other girl would still want to talk to her after she had turned down Gerry's friend.

"Tammy?" Miranda's voice cut into her thoughts. "Tammy!"

She stifled her irritation at the other girl's bossy tone and looked up. "Yes?"

"We were just asking why you didn't come in costume," Jeannie said. "It's Unity Week, in case you didn't know."

Tamsin did know. The entire school was plastered with posters announcing just that, and it had been hard to miss the school song being played on the PA system at the start of every period yesterday. Today, people had been encouraged to come to school dressed like children.

"You should have worn a costume, Tammy," Lisa told her, straightening her striped knee socks with a self-righteous air. "You're not showing any Unity Week spirit, and to think you hang out with cheerleaders!"

__

That could be easily remedied, Tamsin thought. "I'm not really used to all this," she said. "We didn't have this kind of thing at my old school."

"You didn't have Unity Week?" scoffed Miranda, looking like a very worldly four-year-old as she puffed on her cigarette. "Where did you go to school — a convent?"

"Actually, yes," she replied flatly.

Robin regarded her thoughtfully as the other girls dissolved into giggles. "Is something wrong, Tamsin?" she asked with genuine concern, walking over to sit with Tamsin. "You've been quiet since yesterday. If you have a problem, you can talk to me."

She managed a smile. "Thanks, but it's not really a problem. I guess I'm just a little mixed up about something."

"Sometimes it helps to talk it over."

Tamsin looked at the other girl, who looked like she really wanted to help. "Look, it really is no big deal," she told Robin, checking over her shoulder to make sure that Miranda and the others weren't listening. "Someone just asked me out, that's all, and—"

To her utter dismay, Robin giggled shrilly, drawing the others' attention. "Ooh! _Who?_"

"Who, what?" Miranda demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"Someone asked Tamsin out," Robin told her before Tamsin could shut her up.

Tamsin hid her flaming face with one hand as the other girls all squealed and demanded to know who had asked her. "Remind me to gag you the next time I try to tell you anything," she muttered to Robin.

The dark-haired cheerleader looked contrite. "Sorry! I'm just so happy for you! So how'd it go?"

"It went nowhere. I said no."

__

"WHAT?" Jeannie, Lisa and Sally Jane shrieked. 

Tamsin shot them a withering stare. "Look, that was the first-ever time that a someone had asked me out, so I guess I got a little nervous," she admitted, "but I _really_ couldn't go anyway. He asked me for that night and I was needed at home."

Sally Jane pouted sympathetically. "Oh, that's _so_ sad." 

"Well, he should have asked at least one day before, anyway," Robin said, patting Tamsin's shoulder. "We have lives of our own, too, you know."

Tamsin smiled. Her mother would have said the same thing. "That's true," she conceded. 

"So who _is_ he?" Miranda wanted to know.

"Does it matter?" Robin asked. "He doesn't have enough sense to ask in advance."

"Of course it matters. Homecoming is just a couple of months away!"

"And if you tell us who he is," Jeannie said slyly, "then maybe we can talk to him for you."

__

Don't they ever give up? "Thanks for the offer, but you needn't bother," Tamsin told her. Ronnie had struck out with her a total of three times already, and she supposed he knew what three strikes meant.

"Why not? Don't you like him?" 

"Look, I'd rather not talk about this anymore, if it's all the same to you."

"Why don't you want to tell us who he is?" Jeannie gasped. "Is he _black_?"

"I already said I don't want to talk about this anymore," Tamsin said.

"Oh, my God, he _is_ black!"

Tamsin groaned. The other girls' high-pitched shrieks were giving her a headache and she was still too shaken about the whole affair to do anything other than to let them make up their own conclusions. "Can we drop this, please?" she begged. "Now?"

"You brought it up," Miranda told her before finishing off her cigarette and turning to the mirror.

"Well, whoever he is, I'm sure he'll ask you out again," Robin whispered consolingly.

"I hope so," Tamsin blurted out, then blushed. _Where did that come from?_

* * *

On Day 3 of Unity Week, the students of TC Williams overthrew their teachers and took over the school for the entire day. Student Council President Steven Marino spent the day in the principal's office, reading Edward Lear limericks over the PA system, paging people for no reason and, to his credit, objectively assigning tardies and detentions to erring students. All science classes featured film showings of _101 Dalmatians_, while all math classes were officially declared as naptime.

When Ronnie walked into his last period English class, he found Gerry in his wheelchair at the front of the room, and Mr. Graham seated at a desk in the third row. Rev stood next to Gerry, passing out leaflets. "Sunshine," the "substitute teacher" addressed him in a firm voice not unlike Coach Boone's. "About time you got here. Sit down."

Ronnie chuckled and took the piece of paper handed to him. "Yes, sir."

"On second thought," Gerry announced as the final bell rang, "don't sit down. That's right, everyone up again! This is _my_ class, and in _my_ class, there is no democracy. _I_ am the law, and the law says _get up_!"

"This sounds awfully familiar," Blue snickered as everyone stood.

Gerry spent the next twenty minutes rearranging the class. He sat black and white together, with Tamsin being seated last because she was the "wild card." Gerry predictably seated her next to Ronnie. "I suggest y'all get real comfortable in those seats," he declared after everyone had been displaced to his satisfaction, "because that is where y'all will be sitting for the rest of the week!" He frowned when Blue, Rev and Alan laughed. "No laughing! Now, today we will discuss a contemporary classic, a poetic gem known even to the Average Joe. Alan will be reading the selection aloud for us today, but y'all can read along if you look at your handouts. Alan?"

By now, quite a few people had read their handouts and were laughing as Alan came forward and began to sing Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," accompanying himself on the acoustic guitar slung around his neck. A grinning Mr. Graham joined in, and pretty soon the entire class was singing along.

Gerry thanked Alan after he finished his number with a flourish, then turned back to that day's "lesson." "Now, can anyone tell me where the selection is from?" He grinned at Mr. Graham. "How about you, Jon?"

The teacher laughed and gamely answered. "The selection comes from the movie _The Graduate_, which tells the story about a young man's affair with an older woman."

"Very good, Jon! Now, why don't we try naming other works that deal with similar taboo themes?" 

The responses ranged from _Lady Chatterley's Lover_ (Tamsin) to "Me and Mrs. Jones" (Blue) to movies that weren't really fit to be mentioned in mixed company (Ray), and Gerry wisely stopped asking before Rev spontaneously combusted. "If we take a look at all the examples we've come up with," he said, wheeling back and forth before the blackboard, "can we come up with a short list of things that society considers taboo?"

"Any kind of affair, basically," Rev said, his face still red.

"Ha! Almost, but not quite," Gerry told him. "Didn't any of you notice that there seems to be nothing about older men having affairs with younger women? Why is that?"

__

Oh, man. Ronnie groaned as his friends all grinned and winked at him. He couldn't believe they were still at it; and in _class_, no less!

"Actually, there is a novel on the subject," Mr. Graham said. "_Lolita_ by Vladimir Nabokov is about an older man falling in love with a very young woman — a girl, really; and it remains very controversial to this day."

"Well, that's just one example," Gerry argued, "but in most of them, it's always the woman who goes astray. Why is that?"

"Because there's a double standard for moral behavior," Ronnie said. "Women are expected to be good because they have to set good examples as wives and mothers, so when a woman has an affair, it's a big deal; on the other hand, society lets a man do basically whatever he wants."

"All right!" Ray and his friends cheered.

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "At the same time," he went on, "you can also think of it this way: women, as the so-called weaker sex, are more prone to sin; while men are said to be stronger and never succumb to temptation — which, as many of us know, is not totally true."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Tamsin murmured.

Ronnie found himself smiling. "Thanks," he replied quietly.

"Would you ever date a much younger girl?" Gerry asked him then.

"No way!" he said with more force than he'd intended. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tamsin turn to him curiously, but he wouldn't look at her. "Well, it's kind of easy to say that now, isn't it?" Ronnie continued. "I mean, at our age, a 'much younger girl' is still pretty much a little kid and to think of little kids that way is just…_wrong_."

"Amen, brother," he heard Rev say.

"That's true," Gerry admitted, then turned to his real target. "How about you, Jon? Would you date a much younger girl? Like a student, perhaps?"

Unconscious of all the eyes on him, Mr. Graham smiled and shook his head. "No; like Sunshine, neither would I. My students are like my children, and I'd never even think of going out with someone whose diapers I could have been changing once upon a time."

He sounded like he meant it, but Ronnie sniffed skeptically. _I'll bet._

* * *

"Well, that was interesting," Tamsin said to herself as she got off the bus later that day. The school song over the PA system last Monday had been annoying and costume day had been stupid, but classes that day had been kind of fun. English was weird because Gerry had actually conducted a serious discussion; but she had enjoyed that, too. It had been funny to see Uncle Jon being treated like a regular student.

She let herself in and put some music on the record player in the study, taking care not to disturb her uncle's books and papers. As Janis Joplin's husky wail filled the house, she went to the kitchen to make herself a snack. 

Tamsin had just finished making a sandwich with the last of the salami they had brought over from New York when she became aware of someone insistently ringing the doorbell. She frowned thoughtfully. _Who could it be?_

Grabbing an umbrella from the hall closet just in case the mystery person was a knife-wielding psycho (one could never be too careful), Tamsin approached the door warily and yanked it open.

Sheryl Yoast was standing on the porch. "'You Tamsin Lee?" she demanded without preamble.

"Who wants to know?" Tamsin asked.

"I'm Sheryl Yoast," the little girl replied. "My daddy helps coach the Titans. I'm here to talk to you about Sunshine."

__

Ronnie again, she thought with a silent groan. After what happened the previous day, Tamsin no longer wanted to discuss him with _anyone_, but Sheryl didn't look like she was planning to leave any time soon. "What about him?"

"I've heard the fellas talkin'. You haven't been payin' him any attention." The little girl glared at her. "It's puttin' him off his game and we don't like it."

Tamsin glared back. "Did the other guys put you up to this?"

"No, I followed you here all by myself." Sure enough, the street was empty, save for what looked to be Sheryl's bicycle lying on the front lawn.

"That's stalking."

"I ain't here to kill you, I just want to talk to you."

"You could have fooled me."

Sheryl stuck her chin out stubbornly and returned to the topic at hand. "You're bein' mean to Sunshine. It's bad for the team."

"I am not being mean to him."

"He's asked you out on a date more than once and you always say no. That's mean."

"Well, he has lousy timing. I was all ready to go home the first time he asked and—"

"It's distractin' him and ruinin' his game. The Titans will go to the dogs because of you."

"And just what am I supposed to do about it?" Tamsin asked, crossing her arms and leaning on the doorframe. "Blindfold him so he doesn't run the risk of looking at me ever again?"

"No, I want you to come to the first game Saturday afternoon." The little girl looked at her soberly. "Coach says you can't force a person to do what you want, so I can't force you to go out on a date with Sunshine; but maybe he'll play better if you're watchin' him."

"Hasn't it occurred to you that you're _forcing_ me to watch this game?"

"The game's at two in the afternoon," Sheryl went on as if she hadn't said anything. "You'll have time to finish your chores and such in the morning, so you can hang out with the team after the game. Wear something red."

* * *

"Coach Yoast's daughter came over this afternoon," Tamsin told her uncle at dinner that evening.

"Sheryl? The little girl with all the hair?" Uncle Jon looked surprised. "What did she want?"

"She told me that I was being mean to Ronnie Bass and putting him off his game, then she invited me to the Titans' first game on Saturday," she replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm not _arguing_ with him or anything — nothing like that," she clarified before he could ask. "She says I'm being mean because I haven't gone out with him."

"Ah." He smiled. "I see. Has he asked you?"

"A few times," she mumbled, blushing. "I've never had to deal with this kind of thing before, you know," she explained. "He kind of caught me off-guard, and I had no idea what else to say."

Her uncle smiled at her fondly and she thought it strange for him to be looking so sentimental when she was talking to him about _boys_. "So, do you like him?" he asked.

"I guess so." Tamsin was sure her face was burning by now. "I mean, he's nice, and intelligent, and he's not that bad-looking…but he's a football player!" 

"What's wrong with that? I thought you saw him as more than just a football player."

"They make such a big deal out of dating football players at school. You should hear the girls I'm stuck with." She wrinkled her nose. "Their inanity defies description. I don't want to put up with that kind of aggravation." She shrugged. "But I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Well, you'll never know, sweetie, Sunshine just might try again; and you'll have to decide whether or not he's worth putting up with that kind of thing."

"I think he deserves a chance, at least," Tamsin admitted, playing with her napkin.

Uncle Jon smiled at her. "There you go."

"But what about Mom?"

"What about her?"

"Well…what if she suddenly wants me to come home?"

There was a pause. "Tamsin," he began, and her heart sank at the gravity in her uncle's voice and his use of her full name, "I'm not going to tell you your mother doesn't want you to come home, because she does. She misses you very much. But you are not going back to New York any time soon." 

"Not even for Thanksgiving or Christmas?" She was flabbergasted. "Why?"

Uncle Jon sighed. "Sweetie, you _know_ the reason why your mother had you move here with me is because she is going to be very busy and out of the house a lot this year," he told her, his voice tired. "She wants to make sure that someone will be around to take care of you."

"I can take care of myself."

"I know you can, but as long as I'm here, you won't have to." He smiled and patted her hand. "_Your_ job is to study and enjoy life like any normal teenager; so the next time Sunshine asks you out, say yes."

* * *

"Hey, Sunshine!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Ronnie could see Gerry and Blue passing by his usual spot on the front lawn. "Hi, guys," he murmured as he Drew the Bow and Shot the Tiger.

"You've only got a few minutes until the first bell," Gerry reminded him. "Better finish up or you'll be in detention after school today, instead of at practice where you belong."

"I'll be done soon."

"See you in Calculus, then."

"Yeah." Ronnie managed a brief nod before stepping forward to begin the High Pat the Horse, removing his friends from his line of vision. When he turned toward the front walk again, he saw Tamsin standing there, watching him.

He smiled. "Hey, Tamsin."

"Hi," she replied. "I can't believe you're doing that here," she said as Ronnie concluded his _tai chi_ and gathered up his books.

"You can't believe I'm doing _tai chi_?"

"No, I can't believe you're doing it _here_." Tamsin looked around the front lawn as they began to walk toward the TC Williams building. "Don't the noise and all the people distract you?"

"No. I can block out the noise and people basically leave me alone."

"My mom does hers in the living room, but in the summer she likes to go to Chinatown."

Ronnie smiled, remembering serene early mornings back in California, moving in perfect unison with at least twenty other people of all ages and races. "Do you do _tai chi_?"

She shook her head. "Mom says I'm too tense to be graceful," she told him with a good-natured, _what-can-you-do_ smile. 

"Well," he replied, "there's nothing wrong with the way you move." While Tamsin didn't glide the way many girls did, she walked with a brisk, confident stride that wasn't hard on the eye, either.

She blushed as he held the door open for her. "Thank you."

"Are you watching the student-teacher volleyball game after school?"

"Yeah. You?"

Ronnie grimaced slightly, disappointed that he wouldn't be around. "I have football practice."

"I see."

"The Titans' first game is on Saturday."

She nodded. "So I heard."

"Are you going?" he asked, mentally crossing his fingers.

Tamsin smiled shyly as the first bell rang. "I'm thinking about it."

It was a good morning.

* * *

On the final day of Unity Week, TC Williams High School held another big pep rally just for the Titans, who were having their first game of the season the next day. _Well, at least I'm showing some "Unity Week spirit,"_ Tamsin thought as joined the crowd pouring into the TC Williams football stadium that Saturday afternoon.

Practically all of Alexandria and Groveton Heights turned out to watch their teams play. Apparently, football was to Virginia as ice hockey was to Canada, she thought as she passed grizzled old-timers swapping Depression stories, farm families with all their children in tow, and TC Williams faculty in her search for a seat.

Spying Sheryl Yoast's curly blond head glinting in the afternoon sunlight in the very front row, Tamsin stamped her way down the bleachers and presented herself to the coach's daughter.

Sheryl was sitting next to a little black girl who probably belonged to Coach Boone. The two together made an interesting contrast, one fair and dressed in grubby jeans and a sweatshirt, the other dark and wearing a frilly red-and-white dress and patent leather Mary Janes. 

Sheryl gave a regal nod of approval at Tamsin's crimson shirt and matching beret. "Good. You're wearing red."

"Don't you have lipstick?" the other little girl asked.

Sheryl gave her friend a disgruntled look. "Move over, Nikki, so she can sit."

They made space for her on the bleachers, and Tamsin found herself next to Emma, who had been sitting on Sheryl's other side. The blonde girl was very happy to see her. "Tamsin! You're here!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you decided to watch!"

"Yeah, well, I kind of got bullied into it," she told her friend wryly. "What's going on?"

"The Lions are warming up," Emma replied. She pointed to one of the players as the entire team turned to the right with military precision. "See that guy? That's Kip Tyler. He's an All-American guard. Broke Rev's wrist last year. I hear he has it in for Sunshine."

Tamsin scowled at Kip Tyler, who looked big and mean even at a distance. "What? Why?"

"Well, when he replaced Rev at the game last year, Sunshine kind of threw Kip over his shoulder. Some kind of martial arts move or something. Knocked him flat on his back."

"Hmph. He deserved it."

Presently, the Groveton Lions jogged off the field and the TC Williams supporters began to cheer. A wildly whooping Sheryl dragged Tamsin to her feet, and Tamsin stood there and clapped as the TC Williams Titans made their entrance. "I can't believe they really do that!" she exclaimed as the team danced onto the field.

"It's their trademark!" Emma yelled back before beginning to cheer again.

"Oh, God." She watched with a pained expression as the Titans did their little number. "What's going on now?" she asked when it was finally over and everyone sat down again. An official stood with one member of each team in the middle of the field.

"The team captains are going to toss the coin!" Sheryl told her, looking at Tamsin as if she weren't very bright. "Whoever wins gets to choose whether they'll receive or defend the kickoff! Don't you know _anything_?"

"I don't know a darned thing about football, if that's what you're asking."

Nikki smiled at her as the other girl groaned and looked up at the sky in exasperation. "That's OK, neither do I."

* * *

"TC Williams wins the toss," the official announced as the team captains walked off the field to rejoin their teams. "TC Williams chooses to receive the kickoff."

Yoast watched Boone give Ronnie some last-minute instructions, then thump the boy's shoulder pads encouragingly as white jerseys streamed from the sidelines. 

"Just a moment, son," Yoast said, taking Ronnie's arm as he passed. Smiling to let the boy know nothing was wrong, he gestured to where Sheryl and Nikki were waving and grinning wildly. "I just thought you'd want to know who's watching you tonight."

Sheryl was pointing to the dark-haired girl in red sitting to her left. Yoast chuckled as his daughter prodded her and the girl dutifully produced a smile and a wave. 

A grin spread over Ronnie's face. "I owe Sheryl a whole ton of ice cream."

"You can pay up after you win."

"I will, Coach." The boy grinned at the Yoasts, then gave the girl a little wave before joining the rest of the Titans offense in huddle.

__

"Woohoo! Let's go, Titans!" Sheryl hollered when they took their places on the field. _"Let's beat Groveton!"_ The little girl then glared at her hostage. "You ain't cheerin'!"

"What's to cheer for?" the older girl replied. "There's nothing going on!"

"There will be later, and you'd better be cheerin'!"

__

"All right — READY! GREEN 11!" Ronnie bellowed as he took his place behind the offensive line, ignoring Kip Tyler snarling at him from across the line of scrimmage. _"GREEN 11!"_ Yoast noted uneasily that the Groveton guard had the look of a bull fixing to gore. _"Hut-hut!"_

The ball was snapped and Tyler charged, but two Titans launched themselves right at him, giving Ronnie enough time to find an open receiver. Alan, whom they were trying out at wide receiver that night, darted through a wall of Lions to catch the ball. He ran forty yards before the Groveton defense caught up with him. 

During the next play, Ronnie found Alan again. This time, the quarterback fired a long bomb that caught Alan in the chest and sent him right over the goal line for a touchdown.

"Looks like the boy's little problem is solved," Yoast said to Boone as the Titans took the lead, 7-0.

Relief flickered over the head coach's face. "Yeah, it sure does."

* * *

Ronnie's performance that night was, in the words of the next day's edition of _The Alexandria Sentinel_, "inspired." During the first half of the game, he threw nowhere but right into Titan hands. Once, the ball drew a graceful spiral in the air before dropping neatly into Eddie Lindros' hands; another time, it miraculously found its way to a Titans receiver through a sea of bodies. Even Blue scored a touchdown when one of Ronnie's passes bounced off a Groveton player's helmet. 

The home crowd was on its feet and screaming going into the second half of the game. "We're leading 24 to 3!" Sheryl said, jumping up and down excitedly as both teams took the field again.

Tamsin whooped dutifully. The game still confused her — she basically cheered whenever a Titan was holding the ball — but she knew a commanding lead when she saw one.

Unfortunately for the Titans, the Groveton coach must have given his team a thorough talking-to during half time, and the Lions entered the third quarter determined to wrest away the lead. "Hey, what's he doing there?" Tamsin asked, pointing to where Kip Tyler was pawing at the ground at the center of what she now knew was the Groveton offensive line.

"Oh, no, I knew it — he's playin' both ways tonight," Sheryl said nervously. She nibbled on her thumbnail as the Lions quarterback called the play. The ball was snapped and the receiver ran for the end zone with Tyler blocking ahead of him.

"Ouch!" everyone exclaimed as Ryan Hunter went down after a particularly hard hit.

__

"NO!" Sheryl shrieked as the Lions scored a touchdown, increasing their score to 10. _"Where were the rest of you guys? Why weren't you helping him, Julius? 'Unbeatable defense,' my Aunt Betty!"_

Tamsin watched the younger girl pace and fume, then traded looks with Nikki. "Better get used to it," the little black girl told her solemnly.

The TC Williams crowd watched with mounting frustration as the Lions scored two more touchdowns, tying the score at 24, then cheered in relief when the Lions' receiver fumbled the ball and Petey dove for it, causing what Sheryl called a turnover.

The Titans offense took the field at the beginning of the fourth quarter. "Someone's looking at you again," Emma murmured with a grin.

Tamsin blushed. "Shut up."

__

"BLUE 14!" Ronnie called. _"Hut-hut!"_

The ball was snapped and he stepped back to pass while the receivers went up against the Lions defense. "Oh, my God!" Emma squealed and clutched at Tamsin's arm. Instead of passing, the quarterback began to run. "He's going for it himself!"

Tamsin clutched right back as they all watched him run. Down on the sidelines, the cheerleaders shook their pompoms and the Titans ran alongside the play, shouting encouragement to their teammates. Forty yards to go…thirty-five…thirty…

__

"Oh, no — Sunshine!" 

An indignant outcry arose from the TC Williams supporters when Tyler tackled Ronnie on the Titans' twenty-yard line. Tamsin found herself on her feet right alongside Sheryl. Both were yelling angrily. _"Try pickin' on someone your own size!"_ Sheryl screamed.

__

"Oh, yeah, that's real sportsmanlike, Tyler!" Tamsin bellowed when the Lions guard got up and pushed Ronnie down when the other boy tried to rise. _"You jerk!"_

Emma and Nikki pulled their friends back down when both girls paused for breath. "I suggest you calm down before you start using words you shouldn't be using in front of little kids," Emma told Tamsin, but she was hard-pressed to hide her smile.

"Well, it was a rotten thing to do," the other girl snapped, scowling at the field, "and he _is_ a jerk. I'd like to introduce his head to a blender someday."

Her friend gave up and laughed. "We'll make a football fan of you yet, Tamsin."

The rest of the fourth quarter turned into a defensive battle as both teams sought to keep their opponents from scoring. Tyler continued to shut down the Titans offense; but to their credit, Big Julius and the rest of the defense rallied to counter the Lions offense. _"Ha!"_ Sheryl cried triumphantly as Ryan Hunter exacted revenge for the hit in the third quarter. _"That's more like it!"_

The minutes ticked by with the score remained tied at 24. A Titans field goal attempt failed, and a Lions receiver fumbled what would have been a sure touchdown pass. "He'll kick himself over that until the day he dies," Sheryl said with relish. She was happier now that the Titans had stepped up on defense, but worry over the knotted score continued to gnaw at the home crowd.

Tension rose as the Titans used up their last time-out with only 45 seconds left to play. Emma and Sheryl had death grips on each of Tamsin's arms, but she didn't mind. She was sure she was grasping their arms just as tightly.

"I hope they do something soon," Emma murmured when the teams returned to the field with the Titans on offense. 

The words were barely out of her mouth when she got her wish. When the ball was snapped, Tyler charged Ronnie again, but the Titans quarterback lowered his shoulder and charged back. The home crowd roared as Ronnie upended Tyler and fired a pass through traffic to find Alan, open deep. The discombobulated Lions defense sprang into action a moment too late, and Alan ran forty yards to score the winning touchdown as the clock ran out.

__

"All right! Woohoo!" Sheryl cheered as the scoreboard registered the final count: 31-24, Titans.

__

"Sorry, Tyler!" Tamsin gloated beside her. _"Better luck next time!"_

* * *

The mood in the locker room was jubilant. Everyone was tired, quite a few had scratches and bruises, and Ronnie's ribs ached from the sacking in the fourth quarter, but the win did much to ease the pain. "The Titans are _back_, y'all!" Petey crowed. "We came, we saw, we kicked butt — specifically Kip Tyler's!"

"Hey, he gave as good as he got," Ronnie pointed out as he gingerly shrugged on his letter jacket. Ryan grimaced and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but _he_ didn't win, did he?" his friend laughed. "Betcha that Groveton coach's feeling real rotten right about now — he got beat by a brother _twice_!"

"Those all-white schools better start thinking about integrating," Blue said, "or else they ain't never gonna have _soul power_!"

Coach Yoast smiled in quiet amusement as the team cheered. "Enough gloatin', boys. The season's just begun, and we've got twelve more games to win if we want another perfect season. Y'all go out and celebrate tonight, but it's back to work again next week."

"Man, he sure knows how to take the joy out of life," Ryan murmured as they left the locker room. Outside, there was more cheering from the fans. Reporters were interviewing Coach Boone, while Alan's mom and a photographer from the _Sentinel_ snapped pictures of Alan and his beaming father holding that night's game ball.

Ronnie accepted congratulations from a crowd of well-wishers before meeting up with his parents. "Good game, son," Colonel Bill Bass complimented him. 

"Thanks, Dad," he replied, smiling.

"How do you feel, Ronnie?" Betty Jean Bass asked with concern. 

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? That boy hit you awfully hard. Did they check you to see if anything's broken?"

"Of course they did, Betty," Colonel Bass told his wife. "They sat him down and looked him over right after he got tackled. If the boy says he's fine, he's fine." He then turned to his son. "So I guess you and your friends have plans for tonight?"

"Yeah, we'll be hanging out or something. We haven't really decided yet," Ronnie said. One thing was for sure, he thought, since more of the Titans could now drive, they wouldn't just be walking around downtown like last year. 

His father nodded. "Well, you be careful. Try to be home before midnight."

"I will." He shook hands with his father and kissed his mother on the cheek. "See you." 

After his parents were gone, a group of cheerleaders and their friends caught up with him. "Hi, Sunshine," Miranda said with a friendly smile. "Great game tonight."

"Thanks," he replied politely.

"Where are you guys headed now?" 

"I don't know yet. We still have to talk it over."

"Well, we're headed for the Hill," a girl with curly blonde hair (he couldn't remember her name) told him. "Why don't you join us?"

Ronnie shook his head. "Sorry, but I don't think it's a very good idea," he said. "You know some of the guys still aren't welcome there."

"Oh, pooh, who cares about _that_?" the blonde girl scoffed. "Just bring them along. Who cares what other people will say?"

"_We_ won't mind," another unknown added.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," he replied with a smile, "but I think we'll try the Hill another time." If he got the Titans thrown out of someplace again, Petey would never let him live it down. "Thanks for asking, though."

"Well, we'll be there if you change your mind," Miranda tossed over her shoulder when she and her friends walked away.

Ronnie finally found some of his friends waiting by the exit near the parking lot. "Hey, Sunshine!" Rev greeted him. "Way to handle Tyler!"

"Thanks, man," he replied with a grin and a low five, then noticed Tamsin standing behind Gerry's wheelchair. "Hey, Tamsin."

"Hi," she replied.

"Someone's quite the guy magnet tonight," he teased, noting that Blue and Big Julius flanked her like a couple of prison guards. Petey also stood nearest to the exit, looking like he was waiting for her to make a run for it.

"Sheryl told her not to move from this spot," Gerry laughed as Tamsin glowered. "We're just helping her follow directions. So, what did Miranda and her friends want?"

"They were inviting us to hang out with them at the Hill," Ronnie said. "I said no," he added as his friends laughed. "Now, where _are_ we going?"

They all looked at each other and shrugged. "We could go to Ma Rose's again," Big Julius suggested.

"Man, Julius, you can _walk_ to Ma Rose's from here!" Petey said. "We've got wheels — I say let's live it up! How about the Snack n' Cue?"

"_I_ say we ask the girls," Blue told them, "when they finally come out of the bathroom."

"We heard that," a female voice said behind Ronnie, and Sharon walked up to the Titans, leading Emma and a few other girls. "Hi, Tamsin; I see you're still with us."

"By no choice of mine," the other girl replied wryly.

"What were y'all talking about?" Emma asked as Alan also caught up with them.

"We were trying to decide on where to go," Rev replied. "Y'all got any ideas?"

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. "Any of the usual places is good," Sharon said.

"But we've got _wheels_!" Petey repeated. "We can go _anywhere_!"

"So you're saying we _should_ go to the Hill?" Gerry asked with a grin.

"I wasn't prepared to go that far."

"We could go to my house," Tamsin suggested. "If you want."

"Won't your folks mind?" Alan asked.

"No, and you won't have to worry about the race thing, either," she added with a wry smile. "I mean, _I_ wouldn't be living with anyone who cared about that, would I?"

"Guess not," Gerry chuckled. "Does Tamsin's house sound good to y'all?"

"Fine with me," Petey said, grinning at Ronnie. "So, who rides with who?"

They divvied up the passengers and Tamsin predictably wound up riding with Ronnie. Crammed in the back seat of the Charger were Petey, Big Julius and Gerry. "Don't you guys want to ride with your girlfriends?" Tamsin asked as she fastened her seat belt.

"Naw, it's OK," Petey said. "We like to give them the chance to miss us."

"And to talk about you behind your backs," Ronnie laughed as he drove out of the parking lot with Alan's and Rev's cars following behind. "Where do you live, Tamsin?"

"125 Gartner Street," she said.

"125 Gartner Street?" Gerry repeated. "Why does that sound familiar?"

"I don't know," Petey said. "It don't sound familiar to me."

The address sounded familiar to Ronnie, too, but he was too busy driving to say anything during the ten-minute drive to Gartner Street. "Over there," Tamsin said. "The blue house on the right."

The Titans' convoy parked and Tamsin hopped out to unlock the door while Ronnie and the others helped Gerry out of the car. "…I brought some people over, if that's OK," Tamsin was saying to someone on the front doorstep as they lifted Gerry's wheelchair onto the porch.

"Of course it is, sweetie," a disturbingly familiar male voice said. "Hey, guys!" Mr. Graham greeted them as they moved into the golden circle of the porch light. "Great game tonight! I'm sorry I couldn't go, but I followed the game on the radio."

"Oh, my—" Gerry hissed. Ronnie's stomach dropped into his left foot.

"Everyone," Tamsin said, gesturing toward the bearded man beside her, "this is my uncle, Jonathan Graham."

* * *

"He's your uncle," Ronnie stated, shoving his hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall. 

"Yes, he is my uncle," Tamsin confirmed. He watched as she prodded the floor with her foot, setting the back porch swing in motion. From inside, they could hear music and voices…people having a good time. Mr. Graham had treated them all to pizza and the others were now exploring his record collection. "He took the year off from teaching at NYU to write a book, he took the job here to pay the bills, and my mom decided I should come with him and finish high school here. All right?"

"You never said anything."

"Was I supposed to?" she asked. "It doesn't matter that he's my uncle."

"If it doesn't matter, why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it doesn't matter. I can't get you a better grade just because he's my uncle. He's never treated me any differently from the rest of you."

"This isn't about grades," Ronnie said. "It's just that maybe…maybe people would see you two together and, well, since they didn't know he was your uncle, they'd start…thinking things."

Tamsin looked at him. "What kind of things?"

He looked uneasily at his sneakers. "Well, you know, _things_," he mumbled. "He's a fairly unconventional guy…you're from New York…this is the seventies…things."

Her jaw dropped. "That is the sickest, craziest thing I have ever—" she sputtered. "Didn't he say in class that he would never do that? And he certainly would never think of doing that with _me_!" All through the pizza, Mr. Graham had regaled them with embarrassing stories from Tamsin's childhood, showing Ronnie just how far back Tamsin and their teacher went. "How on earth did you ever—"

"Look, I saw the girl I liked get into a car with a teacher on a Friday night just minutes after she said she couldn't go out with me," he blurted out. "What else was I supposed to think?"

Tamsin gaped at him. "_You_ like _me_?"

"Yeah." Ronnie was sure his face was burning, but he looked her straight in the eye. The words were out of his mouth; there was no taking them back now. "I guess I do."

"Oh." She folded her arms around the nearest cushion and stared fixedly at her lap. "Sorry," she said after an excruciating pause. "I've never had to deal with this boy-girl stuff before."

"That's OK," he replied with a weak chuckle. "I know it's kind of hard to swallow at first."

She was quiet again for a moment. "He's not _really_ my uncle, you know," she said, venturing to look at him again. "He's my mother's best friend. But he's the closest thing I've got to a father."

"Where's your dad?"

Tamsin shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know his name."

He nodded. "I see."

"I figured you would," she said, managing a smile. "I'm not sure if the others will understand, though, so…not that I'm embarrassed about it or anything…but—"

"Hey, don't worry about it." He smiled reassuringly. "I won't tell anyone."

"Anyway, now you know the whole story," Tamsin concluded, looking briefly down at her cushion and then back up again. "But…if you really wanted to know…didn't it ever occur to you to just ask me?"

His smile grew into a sheepish grin. "Er…no."

****

Concluding Remarks: Yay! Sunshine's misery is over! I was thinking of being cruel to him for just a _leetle_ longer, but he batted those baby blues at me and I had to reconsider. (Tamsin's nagging helped, too.)

To those who (hopefully) will review, I'd greatly appreciate feedback on Tamsin's character. She turned out a lot more sociable than I had originally planned. Does she still come across as an independent thinker, someone "different" who appeals to Sunshine? (I'm scared that I'll either have to fix my summary…or overhaul this entire fic!) Thank you! ~ Ara Kane


	6. You and Me

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Charles Manson, the Jackson 5, the Doors, and the Basses belong to themselves. The fictitious characters and the Titans' theme from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. This chapter is named after the 1972 Moody Blues song, which obviously does not belong to me; and neither do the songs "In the Still of the Night" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." I also do not own McDonald's, Miss America, the _M*A*S*H_ and _Kung Fu_ TV shows, and the Russian Tea Room. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, their house, Ma Rose's and Dario's. I also own Tamsin's pinstriped pants, but she can borrow them because my mother doesn't think I look good in them anyway.

****

Technical Notes: I understand that the US involvement in the Vietnam conflict ended sometime in 1972. Therefore, I'm assuming that the hype over the war is over by now. "Charlie" was a code word used by American soldiers when talking about the Vietcong forces.

****

Author's Notes: Thanks to Amiella Rogue, Rhia and everyone else who reviewed! I really appreciate the feedback. Since we're not getting paid to do this, reviews are basically all that we get in exchange. Don't forget to support your other favorite authors by reviewing their stories!

__

Chapter Five — You and Me

"Hey, Sunshine! Great game last week!"

"Thanks, man." Ronnie grinned as he joined the students entering the TC Williams building. The thrill of the victory over Groveton made it almost fun to go back to school that Monday. 

He was, however, looking forward to the school day for other reasons.

"Hi, Sunshine," said a female voice at his elbow.

He turned to find Miranda walking alongside him, books cradled demurely against her chest. "Hey, Miranda," he replied with a polite nod.

"Back to the grind again, huh?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Getting a burger at McDonald's is starting to sound like a great idea."

Ronnie smiled briefly. He'd never seen Miranda eat anything fattening (which roughly translated to _anything_, period) the entire time they were going out. "Yeah, it is; too bad we've got a team meeting after school today."

The redheaded girl pouted. "Oh, and I was going to ask you guys to join us."

"Sorry," he said with an apologetic shrug, "but we're trying for another perfect season this year and that means a lot of work."

"Of course." Her face brightened. "Hey, maybe we could all sit together at lunch today."

"I don't know. I'll ask the guys, all right?"

"OK. See you!" She smiled and gave him one final wave before going off to join her friends.

"Yeah. See you." Ronnie tuned out the sound of her friends' giggles as he walked to his locker to pick up the rest of the things he would need that morning. 

He caught sight of Tamsin standing further down along the bank of lockers, half-hidden by passersby on their way to class. Ronnie shut his locker door and walked toward her. "Hey, Tamsin."

She smiled shyly up at him as she shut her locker. "Hi, Ronnie."

"Can I walk you to homeroom?"

Tamsin blushed. He supposed his startling revelation last Friday still rattled her. "I guess so."

"You can refuse if it makes you uncomfortable."

"No, you can walk me to homeroom," she said, rolling her eyes. "I might as well get used to it."

"Yes, you might as well, 'cause I ain't going anywhere," Ronnie laughed as they started down the hall together. "Are you doing anything after school?"

She blushed some more, but bravely arched an eyebrow. "Someone's working fast."

"Hey, you can say you're busy if it makes you uncomfortable." He smiled. "So, are you?"

"No," she said slowly. "Why?"

"Well, I owe Sheryl ice cream for getting you to come to the game, and I need someone to chaperone," he chuckled. "Just so people won't think I'm into dating much younger girls. How about it?" he asked as Tamsin laughed.

She smiled. "Sure. Just let me clear it with Uncle Jon."

* * *

"Have her home before dinner, you hear?" Uncle Jon joked over his shoulder as he finished erasing the blackboard after that afternoon's English lesson. 

Tamsin smiled wryly at Ronnie, who grinned back. They had stayed behind to help him clean up and let him know where they were going. "I won't keep her out too late, sir," he said.

"Seriously, though," Uncle Jon told him as he dusted off his hands, "just as long as she's back at a reasonable hour, it's fine with me." 

"Oh, she will be. It's a school night and everything, after all."

"Well, since you're both talking about me like I'm not here," Tamsin said, "I think I'll go now."

Her uncle laughed. "See you at home, sweetie. Bye, Sunshine. You two have fun."

"See you, Mr. Graham," Ronnie replied.

"Sorry about that," she muttered when they were finally out in the deserted hallway.

He chuckled as they started toward the gym. "That went well, actually. I've had fathers look at me like I was Charles Manson or something, back when I had really long hair." 

"How does your dad let you get away with that?" Tamsin asked as she watched him run a reminiscing hand over his collar-length blond hair. She'd seen boys with much longer hair back in New York, Ronnie's was long by Alexandria standards; and while she'd only caught a glimpse of Ronnie's father at the football game last week, he looked like a really straitlaced kind of guy. 

"He doesn't mind. He's pretty cool for an Air Force colonel."

She smiled. Even in ordinary clothes, Colonel Bass had looked like he was standing at attention. "I'm sure he is."

When they reached the Titan coaches' office, right beside the gym, Ronnie knocked, opened the door, and stuck his head in the room. "Afternoon, Coach Yoast," he said respectfully. "Is Sheryl ready?"

"She sure is!" Sheryl herself declared, marching out of the office. "Let's go! I'm _starvin'_!"

"Now, you mind your manners, Sheryl," her father reminded her, coming to the door. Coach Yoast fixed Ronnie with a paternal glare. "Have her home before dinner, you hear?"

"Yes, sir," Ronnie assured him with a straight face. Tamsin, on the other hand, laughed out loud.

Coach Yoast smiled at them. "Well, y'all have a good time. See you at home, punkin'."

"'Bye, Coach," Sheryl said, waving as her father shut the door.

Tamsin snickered and held out her hand. "OK, let's go, punkin'."

The little girl glared at her and brushed past. "Only Coach can call me that."

"Tough…punkin'."

Ronnie chuckled at the mutinous look on Sheryl's face. "All right, you two, cut it out or neither of you gets ice cream."

"Ooh, the big bad football player is going to make me pay for my own," Tamsin said sarcastically. She had no idea why she was acting so strangely. Perhaps the prospect of finally going out with a boy (even with a sassy ten-year-old tagging along) was making her a bit giddy. "I'm so scared."

Sheryl giggled in spite of herself.

Ronnie took them to Ma Rose's. They pushed through the double doors into the diner and a plump black woman standing at the counter gave a cry of delight. "Hey there, honey child!" 

"Hi, Aunt Rose," Ronnie replied courteously as he escorted Sheryl and Tamsin past a jukebox playing the Jackson 5. The late afternoon sun streaming in through the plate-glass windows splashed the black-and-white tiled floor with deep gold.

Aunt Rose — Tamsin supposed she was "Ma Rose" — beamed at them as they clambered onto high stools at the counter. "And who are these lovely young ladies?" she asked with interest.

He grinned. "Well, this over here is Sheryl Yoast, Coach Yoast's daughter; and that's Tamsin Lee. She's in my class at school. Sheryl, Tamsin, this is Mrs. Rose Stanton. She owns this place. She's also Blue's aunt."

"Pleased to meet you two," Aunt Rose said to the girls.

"Same here, ma'am," Tamsin replied politely. 

"Now, what'll y'all have?" the black woman asked after Ronnie had taken the stool on Sheryl's other side they were all handed menus.

"I'll have the triple-scoop hot fudge sundae with whipped cream and chopped nuts," Sheryl announced. "Please," she remembered to add.

"How about you, Tamsin?" Ronnie asked.

"I think I'll have the same," Tamsin said as she put her menu down.

"Are you sure?"

"You don't want me to eat ice cream?"

"Let the gal have her ice cream, Sunshine!" Aunt Rose told him, reaching over to pinch Tamsin's cheek. "If she won't fatten up, she'll disappear!"

"I only meant you could get something else if you want to," Ronnie said to Tamsin. "I'm paying, remember?"

"Ice cream's fine," she assured him with a smile. "I still have to eat dinner when I get home, anyway. I'll clean you out some other time," she joked.

He grinned back. "I can't wait."

* * *

The ice cream was gone all too soon and the next thing Ronnie knew, they had dropped Sheryl off at the Yoasts' and he was driving Tamsin home. "Well," he announced as he pulled up along the sidewalk outside 125 Gartner Street, "here we are."

"Thanks for the ice cream," Tamsin said.

"You're welcome. Wanna try it again sometime?" he asked. "Without Sheryl?"

She laughed and fidgeted with hem of her sweater. "That would be nice."

"Cool. I'll call you."

They sat for a while in silence as an old Doors song began to play on the radio. "Am I supposed to kiss you goodnight?" Tamsin asked then. "I told you I'm not really experienced at this kind of thing, so I'm not too sure what the rules are."

Ronnie looked down at the steering wheel. "You don't have to if it makes you uncomfortable."

She laughed again, shakily. "If I didn't do something because it made me uncomfortable, I probably would never have done a lot of things." Tamsin leaned in close and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. She smelled like jasmine. "Good night, Ronnie. Take care going home."

He smiled at her as she high-tailed it out of the car. "'Night, Tamsin. See you tomorrow."

* * *

"So," Emma said expectantly in the third floor girls' room the next day, "tell me all the details!"

Tamsin blushed. "Nothing happened, really — we met after school, had ice cream at Ma Rose's, and then he brought me home. That's it."

"That's _it_?" the blonde girl exclaimed, trying to keep her voice down and not draw her other friends' attention. "He didn't ask you out again?"

"Well, yes, he did. He said he'll call me."

"Well, that's _something_!" Emma grinned. "Did he kiss you goodnight?"

That caught the others' attention. "Who kissed who goodnight?" Jeannie asked keenly.

Robin was wide-eyed. "Oh, my God, Tamsin," she squealed, "he asked you out again, didn't he? And you said yes this time?"

"Nothing much happened," a blushing Tamsin muttered as the others gathered around her, clamoring for details. "We went out for ice cream after school. That's it."

"Where'd you go?" Miranda asked, puffing on her cigarette.

"Ma Rose's," she replied, waving smoke out of her face.

The redheaded girl pondered the answer. "Hmm…acceptable," she declared. "I heard it's one of the best integrated diners in town."

"Ma Rose's is one of the best in town, period," Emma said loyally.

"Did you get a booth or sit at the counter?" Lisa asked.

"We sat at the counter," Tamsin replied, then looked puzzled when the other girls groaned. "What was so bad about that?"

"The counter isn't as _intimate_ as a booth!" Lisa cried, gesticulating with her cigarette. "It's a sign that he's not that serious about you!"

"Well, if it's any indication of how serious he is, he asked me out again even though we sat at the counter." _And there was a kid sitting between us to boot_, she added silently.

"Good!" Jeannie said, relieved. "Now, how far did he get?"

"Not very far," Tamsin told her primly. "I kissed him on the cheek, that's all."

"_You_ kissed _him_?" Jeannie _tsk_ed disapprovingly, shaking her blonde curls. "Uh-oh."

"What was wrong with that now?" 

"Girls are _never_ supposed to make the first move!" Lisa said. "Don't you know _anything_?"

"Apparently not," Tamsin sighed.

* * *

"What's the matter with you?" Tamsin's mother asked over the phone that night. "You sound terrible!"

"If you must know, Mom," she groaned, "I have a headache. Some of the girls at school decided to give me a crash course in dating etiquette at lunch today."

"_Dating etiquette?_ Whatever for? Do you need it?"

"I guess so," Tamsin replied casually.

There was a squeal of joy over the wire that rattled her eardrums. "Who is he? Have you gone out? What happened? I want all the details!" her mother pressed.

She blushed when she realized that Uncle Jon, preparing dinner nearby, was listening, too. "Nothing much happened, Mom. We had ice cream after school, that's all." She grinned. "We had a ten-year-old with us."

"Ice cream? _A ten-year-old?_ Some date!" 

"What did you expect? Champagne and caviar at the Russian Tea Room?"

"Well, I was hoping he'd try to impress you on the first date," her mother grumbled. "Who is this cheapskate?"

Tamsin laughed. "His name is Ronnie Bass," she recited. "He's in a couple of my classes at school and he plays quarterback on the football team."

"Cheap _and_ a jock," her mother harrumphed.

"He's more than a jock, Mom," she said. "He's reading _Siddhartha_ and he does _tai chi_, too, just like you. And the ice cream was good," Tamsin added. "I had a pretty good time."

"Is he cute?"

"Um, yes," she mumbled, avoiding Uncle Jon's eyes. "He's cute." 

"Well, that's _one_ thing in his favor, then," her mother said as Uncle Jon widened his eyes in a comical look of surprise. Tamsin made a face at him. "Did he ask you out again?"

"Yes, he did. And he promised I could clean him out then."

"Good! There just might be hope for him after all. Do you like this boy?"

"Uh…I don't know," she said carefully. "I think he's a nice guy and he's said he likes me," she explained, feeling her face burn just as the rest of her went cold at the thought of what he had said out on the back porch last Saturday, "but I'm…I don't know. I guess he's all right."

"Well, there's no hurry, sweetie," her mother assured her. "Just enjoy yourself. You don't have to do anything if it makes you uncomfortable."

Tamsin smiled. "He says the exact same thing."

* * *

"Oh, I don't feel like sitting _here_ today," Miranda said as she, Lisa and Sally Jane joined their other friends at lunch. "Why don't we go sit with the Titans?"

Lisa giggled and stole a glance at Alan, who was horsing around with his friends at the football team's usual table. "Ooh, let's!"

"Are you sure you want to sit there, Miranda?" Tamsin, who had already started eating, arched a teasing eyebrow. "It's an _integrated_ table."

"Does it matter?" the redheaded girl asked piously. "When it all comes down to it, we're all members of the human race."

"Besides, Tammy, aren't we integrated, too?" Jeannie asked. "After all, we have _you_!"

She gaped at the other girl, feeling confused, shocked and annoyed all at the same time. She was trying to think of a response that didn't have a swearword in it when Emma laid a calming hand on her arm. "Keep cool, Tamsin!" the blonde girl whispered as the others picked up their lunch trays and obediently trotted after Miranda. "Jeannie just doesn't know any better."

Tamsin shook her head and laughed as she slapped the lid back on the container holding her lunch and snatched her orange juice off the lunch table. "That's for damn sure." 

"Mind if we join you?" Miranda was cooing as Emma and Tamsin walked up to the Titans' table.

"Of course we don't mind," Rev said, smiling politely. "Anyone who wants to sit here is welcome."

"Especially good-lookin' ladies like yourselves," Petey chimed in, already sliding over to make room on the bench. "Hey there, Miss Tamsin, why don't you come sit by me?"

Ronnie chuckled as Tamsin received ribbing from all directions. "Hey, Tamsin," he greeted her cheerfully when she sat down between him and Petey.

"Hi," she replied, smiling at him self-consciously before turning back to her lunch.

"Well, now, isn't this cozy?" one of Miranda's friends giggled after they were all seated. She batted her eyelashes at Alan, who was squeezed in beside her.

"It sure is," muttered Blue from Alan's other side, trying to keep from falling off his end of the bench.

"So, do you guys have any games coming up?" the girl with curly blonde hair asked winsomely.

"We've got one against Jefferson this Friday," Gerry said. "Isn't it on your cheerleading schedule?"

She giggled. "Oh, right. I forgot."

Ronnie heard Tamsin mutter something about inanity just as Alan started talking about the 250-pound nose guard that had transferred to Jefferson over the summer. "I heard he's meaner than he is big," the blond boy said.

"I'm sure y'all can take him," his admirer cooed. "You were able to handle Kip Tyler, weren't you?"

"You up to throwing a 250-pound guy over your shoulder, Sunshine?" Blue asked, grinning.

"Bring him on," Ronnie replied coolly, drawing _whoa_s of mocking admiration from his teammates.

"Hey," Miranda exclaimed suddenly, "if I remember our schedule right, there's a game against Herndon that's right before the Homecoming Dance!" 

The Titans looked at each other, confused. "There is?" Alan asked.

The girl next to him frowned. _"You didn't know?"_

"Sorry, but we're more occupied with getting out of our next few games alive," Gerry told her.

"You guys will do just fine," Emma said reassuringly, patting her boyfriend's arm.

"Even with that 250-pound guy on the Jefferson team?" Petey squawked.

"Hey, Sunshine already said he could throw him, no sweat," Rev teased.

"If he don't break his back tryin'!"

"He won't if he does it right," Tamsin remarked. "Once you find the other guy's center of gravity, it's all a matter of using his own momentum against him. Simple physics. What?" she demanded as practically everyone at the table looked at her oddly. "I'm not supposed to know that?"

"How _do_ you know that?" one of the other girls asked.

"Well, if you _must_ know, my mother signed us up for a women's self-defense class the summer before last," Tamsin told her, amused. "She said it would come in handy against muggers."

"Have you had to use it?" Emma asked, concerned.

"Well, I did run into a mugger after that."

"And what did you do?"

"Whacked him in the face with my umbrella."

Ronnie grinned as his teammates all laughed. "Wise move. Well, gotta go," he said as he polished off the last of his apple. "I've got some books I need to return to the library."

"See you, man," Gerry said, slapping him a low five.

"Yeah. See you in English."

* * *

"He barely stayed!" Miranda complained, taking a furious drag on her cigarette, in the third-floor girls' room half an hour later. 

"Oh, I'm sure he wanted to stay," Sally Jane consoled her, "but he had those books to return to the library, remember?"

Tamsin and Emma traded looks at the other girl's words. They were talking about Ronnie! "What's with the renewed interest in Sunshine, Miranda?" the blonde girl asked casually. "Didn't you two break up last summer?"

"We weren't in a _serious relationship_ then," the redheaded girl told her. "I've been doing a lot of soul-searching and, well, I've decided that he's the guy I want."

"Plus the Homecoming Dance is near and you need a date," Tamsin added wryly as Miranda's ladies-in-waiting sighed over the romance of it all.

"That, too," Miranda giggled. "I can't just have _any_ date, especially if I make Homecoming Queen." 

Robin frowned. "Isn't that a little cold-blooded, Miranda? If all you need is a suitable date for the dance, there are lots of guys out there. Ryan Hunter, for one. He's a football player, too; and Corey says he likes you." Since he was Ryan Hunter's twin brother, Tamsin figured Corey would know.

"Oh, if I just wanted a date, Ryan would do; I'm ready to get serious with Sunshine."

"Why didn't you tell the others that you've gone out with Sunshine?" Emma whispered to Tamsin after the bathroom session was adjourned. "They still think you're dating one of the black players!"

"Why didn't _you_?" she asked in reply.

"Because it's not my business."

"Well, neither is it theirs," Tamsin snapped. Miranda's plans for the Homecoming Dance didn't sit well with her for some reason, and it had to do with Ronnie. "Sorry," she muttered, taking a deep, calming breath. "Besides, we've only gone out once. It's not like we're going steady." _That's right,_ she told herself. _You're not his girlfriend. Now stop feeling so possessive!_ "If Ronnie wants to take Miranda to Homecoming, he'll ask her."

"And if he wants to ask _someone else_?" Emma asked slyly.

Tamsin shrugged, trying to look casual. "I'm not going to stop him."

* * *

"Homework all done, boys?" Mrs. Bass asked Ronnie, Petey and Alan as they entered the Basses' living room. 

"Just about, ma'am," Alan replied courteously.

"We just need to ask someone about the reading we have to do for English, that's all," Ronnie added.

"Well, if you hurry, you'll be able to watch _M*A*S*H_ with us," his father said.

He grinned. Of all the new programs on TV, _M*A*S*H_ was Col. Bass's favorite. Ronnie supposed it was because his father could relate to the humor. "We'll try, Dad."

"Luckily they don't know that I ain't in your English class," Petey snickered on their way to the kitchen.

"Ssshhh!" They gathered around the telephone on the counter and Ronnie leafed through his notebook for Mr. Graham's number. He found and quickly dialed it before he lost his nerve, then raised the receiver to his ear and took a deep breath as the telephone rang.

Mr. Graham answered. "Hello?"

"Hi…Mr. Graham?" He hoped he didn't sound as shaky as he thought he did. "It's Ronnie Bass."

"Hey there!" his teacher replied cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, uh, may I talk to Tamsin?"

There was a chuckle on the other end of the line. "Sure! She's right here. Hang on a minute."

"Thanks."

Tamsin came on a short while later. "Hello?"

This time, Ronnie cleared his throat before speaking. "Hey, Tamsin. It's Ronnie." 

__

"Hey, Tamsin, it's Ronnie," Petey mimicked in a comically low voice. Ronnie swatted at his friend with a potholder. It glanced off Petey's head as he and Alan leaned in to try and overhear the conversation.

"Oh. Hi!" she replied.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Ronnie asked.

"Well, I was cooking dinner," she confessed, "but I can leave the spaghetti alone for a while."

His brow furrowed. Her voice sounded oddly breathy. "Are you OK? You sound kind of winded."

Tamsin laughed. "I'm fine," she said. "I just…almost slipped on my way to the phone."

Petey frowned at the strange turn in the conversation. "Winded? What the heck are you talking about, Sunshine?" he whispered.

"He wants to know why she sounds funny, what do you think?" Alan whispered back.

"I think it's a dumb way to flirt with a girl!"

"Ssshhh!" Ronnie covered the mouthpiece and glared at his friends.

"Is something wrong?" Tamsin asked.

"Uh…no," he said quickly. "I just…had to turn off the TV."

"I see." There was a short pause. "Um, so…what's up?"

"Well, do you remember that promise you made to clean me out sometime?"

"Ye-es," she said slowly. 

It was Alan's turn to look puzzled. "Clean you out?"

"Those two are _weird_," Petey told the smaller blond boy, then chuckled. "Birds of a feather."

Ronnie ignored the heckling and forged ahead. "I was wondering if you were free on Saturday," he said, crossing his fingers, "you know, to keep that promise."

"Oh." Tamsin was silent for a moment — a _long_ moment, in his opinion. "Hang on a minute, OK?" 

There was an expectant silence. Ronnie imagined her looking at the chore schedule that he remembered hung next to the telephone in Mr. Graham's kitchen. He heard her talking to Mr. Graham and strained to hear what they were saying, but their TV was drowning things out.

She was back again after another long moment. "Uncle Jon says he can cook that night," she reported.

He grinned and gave his friends a thumbs-up, then suddenly felt guilty. "Are you sure?" he asked. "We can go out another night if—"

"Don't say _that_!" Petey hissed. 

"Saturday's fine," Tamsin told him. Ronnie heard Mr. Graham saying something in the background. "I have hereby been banned from the kitchen this Saturday," she recited, obviously repeating her uncle's words. "And he's only cooking enough for one," she added after Mr. Graham said something again, "so you're responsible for feeding me."

Ronnie laughed and his friends collapsed in relief. "Don't worry, I'll feed you. So…can we talk about this more tomorrow? I kind of called on impulse," he confessed, "so right now I have no idea what we're going to do on Saturday."

She laughed. "Yeah, that's no problem. We've got a couple more days to plan."

"All right, then." He smiled. "I guess you need to get back to your cooking now."

"Actually, yes, I do."

"I'll see you in school, then. 'Bye, Tamsin."

"'Bye."

* * *

"Are you _sure_ I look all right?" Tamsin asked as she stood in the middle of her bedroom that Saturday evening. 

"You look great!" Emma assured her. She had come over to Tamsin's house to help her get ready.

Tamsin frowned critically at her pinstriped navy blue pants. With them, she was wearing black boots, a white embroidered shirt, and a black leather cuff on her left wrist. Emma had lent her a chain belt that rode low on her hips. "Are you absolutely sure?"

"I am absolutely _positive_."

Tamsin slumped down next to her friend. "And I am absolutely positive that I'm going to be sick."

"You will not be sick," Emma told her firmly. "In fact, you'll feel perfectly normal and have a wonderful time. Didn't you have fun the first time you and Sunshine went out?"

"Yeah, but we had a kid with us then."

"Aha, you're making jokes. That's a good sign."

"I'm laughing in the face of danger."

"Oh, stop. Sunshine isn't dangerous. In fact, I'll bet he's just as nervous as you are." She patted Tamsin's shoulder. "Relax, will you? It's like a booster shot — once it's over, you'll be wondering what all the fuss was about."

"Your friends sure kicked up a fuss about it," Tamsin said wryly. 

Emma blushed guiltily. She hadn't been able to keep the news about the upcoming date to herself and this had given rise to Tamsin's second dating-etiquette-related headache. "You don't have to take their advice if you don't want to."

"I can't even if I wanted to. I couldn't make heads or tails of it all." 

They laughed. "Well, just forget it," the blonde girl advised. "You'll do great just being yourself."

"I hope so." 

Emma then checked her watch. "Oh, it's six-thirty! Sunshine's coming for you at seven, isn't he?" She got to her feet. "I'd better leave before he catches me here!"

"Don't leave me!" she howled.

__

"Ssshhh!" Her friend laughed. "Stop being such a baby!"

"I told you, I'm laughing in the face of danger." Tamsin mustered a smile. "Thanks for listening, not telling anyone, helping me get ready, and…everything."

"You're very welcome." Emma smiled and gave her a hug before gathering her things together. 

"Is Miss America all ready, Emma?" Mr. Graham asked when the blonde girl came downstairs.

She smiled back. "As ready as she'll ever be."

"Thanks for helping her out. She really needed a friend tonight."

"It was my pleasure." She shrugged into her jacket. "I'll be on my way now, Mr. Graham."

"Do you need a ride home?"

"No, thank you. It's near enough to walk."

"Take care going home, then."

"I will. Good night, Mr. Graham." Emma waved to the teacher and let herself out.

She had just started down the front walk when she bumped into Ronnie, on his way toward the house. "Sunshine!" she blurted out. "You're early!" 

"Hi, Emma," Ronnie greeted her, surprised. "What are you doing here?" he asked, even though he had a fairly good idea.

Emma laughed. "Tamsin had a little get-ready-for-the-date party." She smiled at the bouquet in his fist. "Nice flowers."

He blushed. "I sure hope there weren't that many people invited." The last thing he needed was a whole crowd of people hanging around. It was just a date, after all, not Homecoming. 

"Oh, don't worry, I was the only one invited." She smiled and patted his arm. "You two have fun."

"We will." Ronnie gave her one final nod before continuing up the front walk again.

Mr. Graham answered the door on the first ring of the doorbell. "Ah, Sunshine! Great game yesterday!" he greeted the boy. 

"Evening, Mr. Graham," he replied, grinning. Last night, the Titans had creamed Jefferson, 45-13. (The 250-pound guard was in the hospital, having his appendix taken out.) "Thanks."

"We're not in class, so it's 'Jon,' remember? Come in! I'm pretty sure Tam's all dressed by now," he said as he ushered Ronnie into the living room and bade him sit, "but I'm supposed to interrogate you and make you squirm a bit before she makes her entrance."

"I know the drill, sir," Ronnie told him, mustering a smile even as his palms grew damp. He wiped them discreetly on his off-white slacks.

The gesture was not lost on the teacher and he smiled in understanding. "Tell you what — if you give me your word that you'll behave and will have her home by midnight, I'll skip the torture I had planned and just call Tam down. Do we have a deal?"

Ronnie couldn't help but chuckle. "Sure."

They shook on it and Mr. Graham excused himself to go call Tamsin. "Ta-am, Sunshine is here!" 

"Be right down!" he heard her reply.

Ronnie stood as he heard footsteps coming down the carpeted stairs. Tamsin walked into the living room a moment later. _"Ta-daaah!"_ Mr. Graham said in an obvious yet futile attempt to break the ice.

She made a face at her uncle, who precipitously left the room, before smiling shyly at Ronnie. "Hi."

"Hey, Tamsin," he replied with a smile of his own. "You look really nice. These are for you."

She blushed and admired the pink peonies he had brought. "Thanks. You look nice, too."

"Thanks." Ronnie made a mental note to thank his mother for helping him pick out the sky-blue shirt he was wearing that night. "Ready to go?"

Tamsin nodded and took the arm Ronnie offered her. "'Bye, Uncle Jon," she called as they stepped out into the hallway.

Mr. Graham appeared in the hallway with a coffee can. "Midnight!" he reminded them as Tamsin put her flowers in the coffee can.

"Midnight," Ronnie promised. He smiled down at Tamsin as the front door swung shut. _Well, here goes nothing._

* * *

"That was great," Tamsin remarked as they left Dario's, the Italian restaurant where they had dinner.

Ronnie smiled at her, taking care to keep an eye on the road. "Glad you liked it."

"It reminds me of the Italian place my mom and I used to go to back in New York."

"It reminds her of New York!" He chuckled. "Ladies and gentlemen, Dario's has the Tamsin Lee Official Seal of Approval!"

Tamsin laughed. "I don't talk about it _that_ much, do I?" 

"No. I'm just teasing." He turned left at the intersection. "But you sure sound like you love it there."

"I do. It's home. Alexandria's nice in its own way," she added, "but there's just something about the city that gets your blood pumping. There's always something going on. It's more…well, the vibe is different, d'you know what I mean?"

Ronnie nodded. "Huntington Beach probably isn't as exciting as New York City, but I know all about the vibe here being different. I had a real culture shock when I first got here — you know, with everyone being so uptight about race and everything."

"I wouldn't have liked to be here when all the hype about Vietnam was going on." Tamsin laughed briefly. "People probably would have called me 'Charlie.'"

"And you would have taught them a lesson, _Kung Fu_ style."

"Sorry, Grasshopper, but I don't know how to do kung fu. I only smack people in the face with umbrellas, remember?"

"Right." He managed a laugh as he turned into a worn dirt road. He was getting nervous again. 

"Where are we going?" Tamsin asked, looking curiously out the window. On either side of the car, barely illuminated by the Charger's headlights, there was nothing but rocks and clumps of overgrown grass.

"The Hill," Ronnie told her casually. "Have you ever been there?"

"No." The lack of suspicion in her voice told him that she had probably never heard of it before, either. "What's there to do on the Hill?"

"Uh, nothing, really — it's just a hill," he admitted. "But it's a really nice place."

"Oh. OK." Didn't her mother ever warn her about going places with boys?

There was just one car up on the Hill that night, parked on the other end of the clearing overlooking the town. Pinpricks of light from Alexandria's streets, houses and buildings shone steadily in the darkness, looking like stars fallen to earth. 

"That is a _spectacular_ view." Tamsin peered over the dashboard to get a better look. "I wonder if I can find my house?"

"You can try." While Tamsin was busy trying to figure out where her house could be, he popped an eight-track of "make-out music" (Petey's contribution) into the car stereo. In a short while, the Five Satins singing "In the Still of the Night" poured from the speakers. "Found it?" he asked when she leaned back again. His arm was resting along the back of the seat.

She shook her head. "I can't tell the buildings apart. I bet I could find it in the daylight, though." She then noticed that his arm was practically around her. "But then no one comes here in the daytime, do they?"

Ronnie blushed and thanked his lucky stars that she hadn't thought to bring an umbrella. However, he didn't move his arm. "No."

"I thought so." Tamsin's voice was a little clipped. She sounded put out, but she wasn't trying to move away from him or demanding to be taken home. "This is a nice song," she said instead, as Petey's eight-track switched to the Shirelles' "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." 

"Yes, it is," he agreed. She relaxed a bit more, even though her hands remained clasped in her lap. Encouraged, he edged a little closer, his side just touching hers. He smelled jasmine again.

She giggled suddenly. "Ronnie, if you're doing what I think you're doing—"

"We don't have to do anything if it makes you uncomfortable."

"I'm nervous," she admitted, giving him a small smile, "but I'm also very curious." 

Ronnie grinned down at her. "Oh." 

"There's just one small problem."

"What's that?"

Tamsin giggled again. "This song reminds me of my mother."

They laughed, the ice broken. "Oh, man," Ronnie said as she finally snuggled into his side and he put his arm around her, "that _is_ a problem."

"I miss her, you know," she said softly after a moment's pause. 

"Why couldn't she move here with you?" he asked.

He felt her shrug. "She and Uncle Jon both say it's because she's going to be very busy with her career this year." She sounded hurt. "She said she wanted me to stay with Uncle Jon, so she'd be sure that there was an adult taking care of me."

"Sounds fishy."

"It sounds _stupid_," Tamsin said, "but I can't think of any other reason why she'd send me away."

Ronnie's eyes widened when he heard a tiny sniffle. "Come on, Tamsin," he said, rubbing her arm reassuringly. "She didn't really send you away — you'll be going back, won't you?"

"I still wish they'd tell me exactly what's going on," she said, her voice alarmingly shaky.

"I'm sure they will soon," he said quickly. "Come on, please don't cry, Tamsin…I'm sorry—"

"No, don't be sorry. Nothing is your fault." She gave a watery little laugh, cleared her throat, and began to sound more like herself again. "_I'm_ sorry. I can't believe I'm unloading all this on you."

Ronnie chuckled and dared to lean his cheek on her hair. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but I really shouldn't have—"

"Hey," he interrupted her gently. "You can talk to me about anything, anytime." He grinned. "Everyone knows you New Yorkers are all supposed to be kind of neurotic, anyway."

"Thanks a lot." Tamsin wiped at her eyes with a handkerchief and smiled. "I really do mean that, though. Thank you."

"My pleasure." Ronnie cupped her chin. "Am I making you uncomfortable?" he whispered.

She gulped but stayed still. "No."

"Good." He leaned in closer, lips just brushing hers.

Suddenly, there was a loud tapping on Tamsin's window and a light shone in his face. For a while, Ronnie was afraid that a car was headed straight toward them, but it turned out to be much worse than that.

Standing outside the car was a flashlight-wielding policeman. "Is there a problem here, kids?"

* * *

__

"Oh, NO!"

Ronnie laughed and pulled on his jersey. The incredulous faces of his teammates disappeared behind the red fabric. "Oh, yes." 

"And what did you say?" Petey demanded. "You didn't give him that old 'somethin' in her eye' story, did you? 'Cause I'm tellin' you, it don't work."

"Heck, no, man! Tamsin told him I was helping her with a big personal problem."

"And the cop believed it?" Big Julius asked.

"Sure he did! I mean, we weren't, you know, crawling all over each other—"

"—yet," Ryan said with a grin. The other Titans laughed.

Ronnie made a face at the defensive linebacker. "Well, besides that, she told him the whole story," he continued. "The cop wound up offering her all the Kleenex he had in his car!" He chuckled and shook his head in wonder. Tamsin's mother was probably a damn good actress to pass on such genes to her daughter.

"So Tamsin really has a problem with her mom?" Gerry asked.

He hesitated, wondering just how much to tell his friends. "Well, they're not fighting," he said carefully. "She just misses her mom a lot."

"But she ain't in no hurry to go back to New York now, is she?" Petey crowed. 

"Did you at least get to kiss her good night when you dropped her off?" Ryan asked.

"No," Ronnie admitted, but he was grinning. "We kept laughing."

Eddie laughed. "Well, you sound like you had a lot of fun even though you didn't get to first base."

The blond boy smiled. "Yeah, I had fun."

"You going to ask her out again?"

"Yeah."

"You going to take her to Homecoming?" Petey asked.

Ronnie blushed, but a whistle blew before he could answer. Coach Boone stood at the locker room door, clapping his hands briskly. "All right, Titans, enough with the chitchat!" he announced. "We got a game in a few moments, in case y'all forgot!"

"Now, I'm glad to see y'all are relaxed," the Titans head coach continued as his team quieted down to listen to his pre-game pep talk. "We've got Rosemont out there tonight. They're also hungry…and angry. But look at you — you're talkin' and laughin' like nothin's out of the ordinary. You ain't scared, are you?" he demanded.

__

"No!" the Titans bellowed as one.

"You're gonna run right over them and laugh in their faces, aren't you?"

__

"Yes!"

"That's what I want to hear!" Boone looked around the locker room, staring each of the players straight in the eye. "Rosemont may be hungry, but they cannot touch you. _Now get out there and show 'em no fear!_"

__

"Yeah!" Ronnie cheered along with his teammates as the Titans finished suiting up and filed out of the locker room. Rosemont's home crowd booed as they took the field, almost drowning out the music from the TC Williams High School marching band.

__

Everywhere we go

People want to know…

As the Titans launched into their trademark warm-up, he searched the small crowd of Titans fans in the stands. Tamsin sat in the very front row, sandwiched between Emma and Mr. Graham. She was watching the warm-up with a pained expression that made Ronnie chuckle. 

__

We are the Titans

The high and mighty Titans…

****

Concluding Remarks: Whee, another chapter! I'm having a lot of fun writing this fic, but now I'm concerned about Miranda's character. She was nice when Tamsin first met her, but I'm afraid her bitchy side isn't unfolding as subtly as I had wanted. What do you guys think? ;)

Up next, Tamsin "meets the parents," a whole lot of stressing over Homecoming and the Titans in concert!


	7. I'll Take You There

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the City of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Jimi Hendrix and James Dean belong to themselves. The fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. I also realize that I have neglected to mention that the towns and high schools mentioned in this story thus far were culled from the area map of Alexandria on _www.yahoo.com_ and again from the Disney movie. 

This chapter is named after the 1972 song by the Staple Singers. The name "Coke" belongs to the Coca-Cola Company, "Charger" to the Dodge Company, and Barbie and Ken to Mattel, Inc. The song sung by the Titans in this chapter is entitled "Baby, It's You," originally (to my knowledge) by the Shirelles. Tamsin's "Don't do anything great…" remark was taken from another great football movie, _The Replacements_. The idea to dress Blue up as a giant eyeball came from a post on the Halloween costume thread on the _www.sugarquill.net_ message boards, while Tamsin's cookies were inspired by a recipe appearing in Diane Mott Davidson's delectable culinary mystery _The Grilling Season_. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, miscellaneous Titans and TC Williams students, the Flemings' house, Thurman Reed and his poetry.

Author's Notes: Thanks to Just A Girl for the philosophical review ;) and to everyone else for all the encouragement. It really means a lot.

Have y'all seen _Blue Crush_ yet? It's only begun showing here and I'm planning to see it, once I've recovered from my hellish workload of these past few weeks. Kate "Emma" Bosworth is in it! She's so pretty! I hate it that Emma gets a bad rap in _RtT_ fics. She obviously made a turnaround in the film. Just for that, I've got a little plot bunny going about her at Gerry's funeral. It's going to be a while before you see that, though, because it's going to contain spoilers for this story! Anyway, on with the show…

Chapter Six — I'll Take You There

The game against Rosemont proved to be a battle every second, but the Titans eventually won, 42-31. Ronnie, having scored two touchdowns as well as setting up the plays for the rest, was acknowledged as the hero of the night. Two days later, people were still congratulating him. 

"Hi, Sunshine!" someone called as he walked Tamsin to English that Friday afternoon. Tamsin recognized the voice as belonging to Lisa; and sure enough, she saw the brown-haired girl standing in the hallway, waving energetically.

Ronnie groaned. "Not again," he muttered. 

"Don't do anything great if you can't handle the congratulations," Tamsin told him, chuckling. Her voice was still a little hoarse from all the screaming she had done at the game. 

"Can't you distract her or something?" he pleaded. "She's your friend."

"Correction — she's _Emma's_ friend." She dodged away when he made a grab for her arm. Ronnie shot her a disgruntled look as she left him at Lisa's mercy.

Tamsin smiled brightly in reply before slipping through the crowd into Uncle Jon's classroom. Ronnie didn't mind the occasional well-wisher or two or twenty, but Miranda and her friends had been fawning over the Titans around the clock since they got back from Rosemont last Wednesday night. His patience was obviously wearing thin.

She was in the middle of some last-minute reading when someone tweaked the little braid she had made in her hair that day. Ronnie gave her an _I'll-deal-with-you-later_ glower as he stalked past. Alan, walking behind his teammate, gave her a little smile before joining the rest of the Titans in the back row.

Uncle Jon walked in just as the final bell rang. "Afternoon, everyone," he greeted them pleasantly as he shut the door. "I trust you read the selection I assigned last Wednesday? Good!" He smiled at the half-hearted affirmatives that followed his question. "Now, I have some bad news and some good news regarding your assignment. The bad news is that you're having a surprise quiz!"

"What?" Ray Budds screeched. Apparently, he wasn't one of those who had read the assignment.

"The good news," Uncle Jon went on over the general protest that met his announcement, "is that you will be working on this quiz in pairs. Is that better?"

"Just a little," the girl next to Tamsin grumbled as the teacher began to pair them off.

Tamsin's partner turned out to be Alan. Fortunately, he had read the assignment and answering the quiz questions was easy. They finished with plenty of time to spare.

She caught Ronnie looking at them when she took out a fresh sheet of paper upon which they would rewrite their answers. He stuck out his tongue at her. Tamsin laughed.

"What is it?" Alan asked.

"Ronnie's mad at me," she chuckled, "because I left him all alone with Lisa earlier."

"He wasn't alone — he grabbed me to keep him company."

"He shouldn't have any reason to be mad at me, then." 

"Anyway, Lisa wasn't congratulating us. She was inviting us to Miranda's Halloween party."

"I didn't know Miranda was having a Halloween party."

Alan looked confused. "Don't you hang out with her crowd?"

"I must have missed them talking about it." She did that a lot, since she barely listened to them talking anymore, anyway.

"Lisa said Miranda wanted to make sure Sunshine was coming," he confided. 

Tamsin didn't blink. "That's no surprise. Miranda still likes him."

"They don't know you're going out with him?"

"We're not 'going out,'" she clarified with a blush. "We've just _gone_ out."

"OK, so they don't know that you've _gone_ out with him?"

"Only Emma does. The rest of them think I've _gone_ out with one of the black guys. Don't ask me how they came up with that one."

"Why don't you set them straight?"

Tamsin shrugged. "I don't feel the need to. Ronnie's not, you know, my…boyfriend or anything. You can't mark your territory when there's no territory at all, right?"

"Right…" Alan looked at her dubiously. "But then Sunshine's obviously interested in you. Don't you think Miranda's kind of making a fool of herself still tailing after him?"

"I don't care what Miranda does," she said. The thought of Ronnie being "obviously interested" in her was making her feel giddy again. "As far as I'm concerned, she's letting him know that she's still interested. If he wants to take her up on the offer, well, I can't stand in his way."

"Even though you want to?" He grinned when she didn't answer and went back to work. When he spoke again, it was about something else entirely. "Now, what's this I hear about make-out music reminding you of your mom?"

* * *

"I can't believe you told them that!" Tamsin exclaimed.

"Sorry." Ronnie grinned at her, not looking the least bit guilty. It served Tamsin right for leaving him at the mercy of Miranda's friend, whose name he still couldn't remember. "They were asking for details, and I had to tell them about the cop, right? It was an important part of the story!"

She narrowed her eyes at him and stabbed violently at the cream cheese in her mixing bowl. "Well, at least you were telling the truth, instead of lying that you'd scored," she grumbled.

He blushed. "I don't lie about things like that."

"Good. Now, how about slicing up that asparagus?"

He eyed the bright green spears dubiously. "You know, when you invite people to dinner, it's customary to have the food already prepared when the guests arrive."

"It's also customary that the girl does the inviting and the girl's mother does the cooking," Tamsin retorted sweetly. "In this case, the girl's _uncle_ would have helped with the cooking, but since he has been on the phone for the past half-hour, guess who's left?"

"Hey, I've already helped with the cooking, in a way. I brought dessert, didn't I?" Ronnie did — a homemade peach pie, compliments of his mother.

"Aw, is big bad Ronnie Bass afraid of a few pieces of asparagus?" she teased. "_Tsk, tsk._ And here I thought you were a liberated male in touch with his feminine side."

"Very funny."

"Put on an apron, Ronnie."

"Is this some kind of feminist thing?" he asked as he obeyed, putting on an apron with the words _Teachers do it correctly_ printed across the bib.

She grinned. "Don't make me put you in the yellow apron with the ruffles."

Ronnie chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "You're lucky you're cute."

He was slowly but surely slicing his way through the asparagus intended for that night's pasta when Mr. Graham finally got off the phone. "Your mother says hi," he said to Tamsin as he checked on the noodles cooking on the stove, "and that there is a black hole in her heart from missing you so much."

"That was Mom?" she asked, sounding and looking hurt and surprised. Ronnie's heart wrenched sympathetically. "Didn't she want to talk to me?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie. We had a lot of business to discuss and she was rather tired when we finished. She promises to call you tomorrow." Mr. Graham grinned at him then. "Diana's also sorry she missed the chance to talk to _you_, Sunshine."

He grinned back self-consciously, feeling his face flush. "Oh, man."

"How is she?" Tamsin wanted to know.

"She's fine," her uncle assured her. "She had a good day today."

* * *

"Superman, for two!"

"Yaaaay!" Tamsin applauded when Gerry's shot went cleanly into the basket. It was a crisp, sunny Sunday afternoon at the Burg and some of the Titans were playing a friendly game of basketball with the local boys. Of course, boys being boys, they needed an audience, which was why Tamsin, Emma, Sharon and a few others were courtside, watching them show off.

"He's on the other team!" Ronnie told her as he jogged past, dribbling the ball.

"I'm neutral!" she called back. Actually, she had no idea which boy was on which team and had been cheering every time the ball went in. 

"I didn't bring you here to be neutral!" He laughed and sidestepped one of Big Julius' friends to sink a perfect three-pointer, winning the game for his team. "_Now_ you can cheer!" 

"Yaaaay!" called Emma. Tamsin laughed.

"No fair," Ronnie grumbled to Gerry as the players went to towel off, "you got the louder one."

"Sorry, Sunshine," the other boy laughed, "but women dig guys with wheels."

"Well, it was still a sweet shot," Big Julius consoled him. "So, what do we do now, y'all?"

"I could use a Coke," Alan suggested, "and maybe something to eat."

"You're hungry _again_?" Blue exclaimed, looking at his wiry friend. "Man, where do you put it all?"

"Well, regardless of where Alan puts it, I think it's a good idea," Sharon agreed, grinning. "Watchin' y'all show off is thirsty work!"

They had Cokes and sandwiches across the street from the basketball court, in a small diner that smelled of brown sugar and melting butter. Aside for the Titans and their friends, there were a couple of white-haired old men playing cards in a corner booth and a few younger black boys hanging out. 

One of the boys said "honky" quite loudly as Alan passed them on his way back from the counter. The blond boy reddened but walked straight back to his friends. "It's OK," he told Blue and Big Julius, who were about to get to their feet. "I don't mind. Sit down, you guys."

"Well, they shouldn't be callin' you names, brother!" one of Big Julius' friends told him. "You here with us, so you obviously cool!"

"It's all right," Alan repeated, taking his seat. "I'm sure they get called names, too."

Ronnie shook his head. "Man, I thought the race thing was all over already."

"It's far from over," Gerry sighed. "If the news got it right, they still got it in California, even with people like you livin' there."

"And it's going to take more than a winning football team to get everyone in this town to trust each other," Sharon added sadly. "I think it's going to take a long time, too. But we're trying, ain't we?"

Emma smiled at her. "We sure are."

* * *

It was just getting dark when they brought Tamsin home. "That was fun," she said as Ronnie walked her up the front path to her house. "Thanks for taking me along."

"You're welcome," he said, "even though you didn't cheer."

"If you wanted someone to cheer for you, you should have brought a cheerleader."

He laughed. "Uh, no, thanks."

They stepped onto the porch and Tamsin began to hunt for her key. As Ronnie watched her fish around in her pocketbook, her face scrunched up in a comical expression of intense concentration, Petey's question rang in his mind. _You going to take her to Homecoming?_

If you are, he told himself, _now's as good a time to ask her as any._

Just then, Tamsin pulled out her key. "Here we go. So," she said to him, "I guess I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"Yeah." _Ask her, you idiot!_ "Uh, hey, listen…" Ronnie cleared his throat. "Before you go inside…"

"Yes?" she asked, looking expectant. Was she hoping he would ask her to the dance?

"Well, I was wondering—"

Beep! Beep! "Sunshine!" Gerry called from Alan's car, which was parked along the curb. "Hurry up with the good nights already! If you ain't done soon, you're _walking_ home!"

Tamsin giggled, then looked back at him. "You were wondering…?"

"I was wondering—" _Just ask!_ "—if we could do this again sometime." _Great job, Sunshine._

"Oh." She smiled, not looking the least bit disappointed. "Sure. That would be nice."

Beep! Beep! "Good _night_, Tamsin!" Alan's raspy voice floated up to them.

Tamsin laughed and waved to the others. "Good night, guys. Good night, Ronnie."

"Good night," he mumbled. Ronnie made sure that she was safely inside before finally walking back to the car. "You guys are going to get it," he growled as he jumped in.

"Well, sorry to have interrupted your good night kiss, man, but my mother's waiting dinner for me!" Gerry said. "What was so important that you had to hang around there forever, anyway? Were you gonna ask her to Homecoming or something?"

"Actually, _yes_."

There was a short silence in the car as Gerry removed his foot from his mouth. "Oops," he said. "Sorry about that."

* * *

On Halloween night, the Titans hosted the Hayfield Hawks. Most of the home crowd wore TC Williams red and white, but many of the younger ones had come to the game in Halloween costumes. Some were planning to go trick-or-treating after the game, while the rest were going to Miranda Fleming's party.

"Tamsin!" Emma greeted the dark-haired girl when she arrived. "You look great!"

Tamsin smiled shyly. "Thanks. You look really nice, too," she replied, admiring her friend's black cat costume. Tamsin's mother had slipped the rose-colored _cheongsam_ into Tamsin's suitcase so she would have something to wear on special occasions. Halloween counted as a special occasion, didn't it?

The blonde girl giggled. "Take a look at Gerry."

She looked obligingly and laughed. Emma's boyfriend, sitting in his wheelchair on the sidelines, was in his Titans uniform, complete with football helmet. "That's team spirit if I ever saw it."

The Titans made short work of Hayfield, 42-21, extending their winning streak and boosting their run at another perfect season. "Victory party, eight o'clock, my house!" Miranda announced over the din, leaping and waving her pompoms as the football team trooped to the showers.

"But it's only six-thirty," Tamsin observed.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well, she needs time to get ready, you know," she said with a smile. "Come on, let's go congratulate the guys."

Tamsin followed her friend down the bleachers and outside the stadium, near the locker room area. They pushed past crowds of fans and met up with Gerry first. "Hey, girls!" he greeted them, removing his helmet to reveal a face flushed and grinning from the decisive victory. "Lookin' good!"

Emma smiled and kissed her boyfriend on the cheek. "Hi, Gerry! Great game tonight!"

"Thanks, sugar. Y'all ready for the party?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the blonde girl giggled, tweaking one of her furry, pointy ears.

"Well, the guys will be out in a while and then we can go." 

The words were barely out of his mouth when Santa Claus barreled out of the locker room. _"Ho-ho-ho!"_ Eddie Lindros boomed from behind the snowy white beard. _"Merry Christmas!"_

"You're a couple of months too early, Santa," Gerry told him.

"Don't laugh," Alan threatened as he joined them. He was dressed as an elf. "Or you're off the 'good boys' list this year."

One by one, the Titans came out of the locker room, ready to party. While most just wore ordinary clothes, a few were in costume. Petey was dressed up as Jimi Hendrix ("I borrowed this shirt off Sunshine"); Blue as a giant eyeball; and Ryan, in jeans, a red windbreaker and with his hair slicked back, masqueraded as James Dean.

"Hey, Tamsin," Ronnie greeted her as he arrived. "You look real nice."

"Hey, look at this, y'all!" Petey announced. "Sunshine and Tamsin are a Barbie and Ken matched set!"

Standing next to her in olive drab fatigues that were most probably his father's, Ronnie looked like a GI with a Vietnamese tea house girl. "We didn't plan on this," he said, looking pleased nevertheless.

"Sure you didn't," Blue told him.

"We didn't," Tamsin insisted.

"Well, y'all can argue about that on the way to Miranda's," Ryan declared. He sounded rather impatient. Tamsin remembered that he had a crush on Miranda and was probably in a hurry to get to the party. "Let's go!"

* * *

Although Miranda had said that the party would begin at eight, many had gone there right after the football game and things were already in full swing when the Titans and their companions arrived.

The music and laughter was loud enough to be heard where they parked, at least ten houses away. As she walked toward the Flemings' behind Emma, Gerry and Big Julius, Tamsin could see the house ablaze with lights. Kids were dancing, eating, talking, inside and even outside on the lawn.

Ryan grinned at them over his shoulder. "See y'all inside."

"Go get 'em, tiger," Petey encouraged as his teammate disappeared into the house. The black boy turned to the rest of his friends and swept an arm out in an elaborate gesture. "Shall we make our entrance?" he asked in a bad imitation of an English butler's stuffy, cultured tones.

"Oh, yes," Gerry laughed. "We shall make our entrance."

Tamsin watched them go in and heard a burst of applause as the partygoers welcomed the new arrivals. Apparently, Petey made the entrance he wanted. "Well, Petey, Julius and Blue made it inside safely," Ronnie observed as he came up beside her. "That's a good sign. Shall we go in?"

"You go on ahead," she replied. "I'll be along in a minute."

He gave her a look. "Tamsin, I can't just leave you standing in the street all by yourself."

"I'll be fine."

"But you don't have an umbrella."

Tamsin laughed. "I'll still be fine. Go on and make your entrance."

But Ronnie didn't move. Instead, he stuck his hands in his pockets and grinned at her. "You know what? Suddenly, I don't feel like going in."

"At all?"

"At all. How about you?"

She wrinkled her nose. The truth was, there were too many people and too much noise. She didn't mind going to parties — her mother loved to entertain and the guests would often spill out of their tiny apartment into the hallway and beyond — she just didn't want to go to this one. "But you're a football player. You're expected to be at the party."

Ronnie smiled and shrugged. "Tough."

"B-but what about the others?" 

"They're big boys — they can take care of themselves. Blue brought his dad's car, remember? Come _on_," he said as he grabbed her hand. "They'll be cool. _We've_ got more fun things to do."

They did indeed do something more fun — they went trick-or-treating. Ronnie produced paper bags from the Charger's glove compartment and they followed the little kids around to claim their fair share of Halloween candy. "How did you do?" he asked as they walked up to another house.

"About five Hershey bars, three popcorn balls, four apples, some fudge and a ton of candy corn," Tamsin reported proudly. "This is my biggest take of all time."

"Really?"

"We only used to go around the apartment building on Halloween," she explained, "and not all of the tenants observed tradition so you either got nothing, or something you weren't supposed to get." She giggled. "I got a cigarette one year. I think I was about eight."

"Are you _serious_?" He gave a shocked laugh.

"Yup. We have some pretty odd neighbors."

"'Pretty odd?' Try 'really weird!'" Ronnie rang the doorbell and, when the door opened, caroled, _"Trick or treat!"_

"Ronnie?" a female voice asked. A woman with pale blonde hair stood in the doorway, looking surprised. "Aren't you supposed to be at a party?"

"Tamsin and I decided to go trick-or-treating instead," he told her. "Mom, this is Tamsin Lee, a friend from school. Tamsin, this is my mom."

Your mom! She shot him a surprised look before smiling politely at Mrs. Bass. "Good evening, ma'am."

"Good evening, Tamsin," the blonde woman answered cordially, with a smile like her son's. "Please, won't you come in?" Mrs. Bass stepped aside as Ronnie guided Tamsin into a small foyer and helped her with her jacket. "My, what a lovely costume!" 

"Thank you," she replied shyly.

"Bill," Mrs. Bass called out then, "come here and meet Ronnie's friend."

"Ronnie's friend?" Colonel Bass repeated as he came up behind his wife. "Where's Ronnie?"

"Hi, Dad." Ronnie gestured toward Tamsin. "This is Tamsin Lee, from school."

"Good evening, sir," she greeted Ronnie's father. He was a tall man with short, graying hair and an obviously military bearing. 

The older man looked down his nose at her as if she were a new recruit, then smiled warmly and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you, Tamsin. Now, aren't you kids supposed to be at a party?" he asked his son.

"We went trick-or-treating instead," Ronnie explained.

"I see." Colonel Bass nodded, acting as if he wasn't surprised. Uncle Jon wouldn't have been surprised, either, Tamsin thought, if she just suddenly showed up the way Ronnie had. "Well, now, why don't we all go sit in the living room?"

Tamsin followed him into a cozy, wood-paneled room and was invited to sit down. She took one of the comfortable armchairs while Ronnie sat on the sofa with his father. Mrs. Bass disappeared into what was probably the kitchen, returning with Cokes and a plate of cookies. Her husband dove for them the minute they hit the coffee table._ "Bill!"_ she admonished. "We have company!"

"You sure you didn't put anything funny in those cookies, Tamsin?" Ronnie joked. "My dad's addicted to them."

She laughed and helped herself to a cookie when his mother offered her the plate. "No, just chocolate and marshmallows." After Ronnie came to dinner the previous Friday, Tamsin had sent him home with a thank-you note for his mother and Mrs. Bass's pie plate filled with cookies.

"_You_ made these, dear?" Mrs. Bass asked her as she sat down in the other armchair.

"Yep. Tamsin's a really good cook," Ronnie answered for her. 

Tamsin blushed. "I can give you the recipe if you'd like," she said to Ronnie's mother.

"That would be nice." She glanced at her husband, who was reaching for his third cookie. "As you can see, we really enjoy them."

"My mom really likes them, too." 

"Tamsin's more than just a good cook, though," Ronnie added. "She's smart, too. She'll probably have a Ph.D. or something someday."

Tamsin felt her face burn even hotter and laughed nervously. "You'd better stop that before my head gets any bigger."

"Well, you've still got a way to go before it gets really bad."

"Are you speaking from experience?" she blurted out, then bit her tongue. _I can't believe I said that._ Mrs. Bass, however, just laughed and ordered her son to stop his teasing.

"A future Ph.D. who knows how to cook," Colonel Bass observed as he took yet another cookie. "You've got to admit that _is_ rather impressive, Betty, especially in this day and age."

Ronnie grinned at Tamsin. "I knew you'd think so, Dad."

* * *

The next afternoon, Mr. Graham took his last-period English class on a field trip of sorts downtown. "I heard that there was going to be a poetry reading today," he said as the school bus dropped them off in a section of Alexandria quite close to the Burg. "I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you guys to contemporary poetry. Don't worry, it's a safe place," he added with a smile. "Shall we go in?"

With Blue and the teacher carrying Gerry and his wheelchair, the class descended a flight of steps to an entrance below street level. The black iron door opened into a small, blessedly warm basement furnished with café-style tables and chairs. The few people already seated had their backs to the door, facing an empty stage that ran the entire back of the room.

A cluster of tables near the front had been reserved for them. Ronnie and his friends took a table in the second row. "Good choice, Sunshine," Rev teased, noting that their table just happened to be right next to the one where Tamsin and two other girls were sitting.

The other boys snickered and grabbed seats, leaving Ronnie with the one nearest to Tamsin. "Thanks a lot, you guys," the blond boy hissed. Since Gerry had brought his own chair, so to speak, it was a rather tight fit and Ronnie had to move his chair closer to the girls' table.

"Aw, shut up, man," Gerry whispered back, grinning. "You would have taken that chair even if we'd made you choose first."

"Sshhh!" Ronnie turned red and motioned for his friends to shut up as Mr. Graham, who had situated himself in the back where he could keep an eye on everyone, delivered some last-minute reminders.

"I'm afraid the waiters have all been instructed not to serve you anything other than Coke, coffee and tea," he told the class, grinning as Ray and his friends groaned, "so don't bother trying to order anything else. I also hope I don't have to remind you about what you're supposed to do when strangers offer you anything." He clapped his hands together like he usually did when he was finishing up a lecture. "All right, then! Just sit back, have fun, and don't worry if you don't understand anything."

The class laughed as the house lights dimmed, leaving the tiny votive candles on the tables the only sources of light. A thin woman in a dark sweater and Indian-print skirt came onstage to welcome everyone to the coffeehouse and introduce Thurman Reed, that afternoon's poet.

The poet walked onstage to polite applause, lights reflecting off his bald head and thick eyeglasses, and thanked the audience in a nervous mumble. Ronnie thought he looked like an accountant in a black beatnik sweater. However, when Reed began to read his work in a rich, resonant voice, Ronnie had to admit that the guy knew his stuff. Although he wasn't sure what the poem was supposed to mean, the words were highly evocative, forming fantastic images in his mind. It was like the poetry had set fire to his brain.

Once upon a time

I talked to you in my head

Like some crazy person

(Did you ever hear me?)

And I dreamed of finger-painting

A red and silver flower

On your shoulder blade

Where I hoped an angel's wing

Would grow

Ronnie heard Tamsin murmur her thanks to the waiter who had brought her tea. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her take a sip and set the large cup down without taking her eyes off the stage. It was dark, the air was sweetly heavy with the smell of incense and Thurman Reed's voice flowed around them like a river of honey. This was certainly better than the atmosphere on her doorstep last Sunday. He just hoped none of the guys would ask to talk to him in the next few minutes and that the poetry wouldn't make Tamsin cry.

He leaned toward her, his heart pounding. "Hey, Tamsin," he whispered, hoping she could hear him.

She could. "Hi, Ronnie," she replied softly.

"I was wondering…" He gulped. "I was wondering if you would like to go to the Homecoming Dance with me," he said, forcing all the words out in a single breath. _There, he'd finally gotten the question out._

Tamsin's eyes widened and she was sure she had gasped. _He did it. He had asked her._ Or had he? Maybe the poet's voice had mixed up what she had heard. "You want to go to Homecoming with me?" she repeated stupidly, hoping the girls at her table couldn't hear. Neither of them turned to look in her direction, a good sign.

"Yes," Ronnie replied.

She felt that familiar mixture of hot and cold steal over her. "Are you sure you want to go with me?"

"Yes, I'm sure I want to go with you." 

Tamsin's heart began to pound. "Well," she murmured, trying to keep her tone even, "you might be interested to know that Miranda's hoping you would ask her." As much as she disliked the other girl, one had to be ethical.

"I'm still sure I want to go with you," he told her, just managing to keep the impatience out of his voice. She could have said "yes" or "no" ages ago to put him out of his misery, but instead she had to bring up _Miranda_, for pete's sake.

"In that case," she murmured, glad that it was practically pitch-black inside the coffeehouse so no one could see her grinning, "I'd love to go to the dance with you."

Finally. Ronnie chuckled quietly in the darkness. "Thank you."

* * *

And so it was that Ronnie finally had a date for the Homecoming Dance. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to tell his friends the good news; and this proved to be a big mistake.

Friday lunch period began with Miranda's friend squealing loudly by the Titans' usual table, nearly causing Petey to spill his apple juice, and making a run for it. "What the heck was that all about?" Petey asked as Alan joined his teammates.

The other boy smiled. "I asked Lisa to Homecoming, that's all. I guess she's happy."

"You _guess_?" Ronnie chuckled. They watched Lisa (finally, he knew that girl's name) tell her friends the good news, a brilliant smile on her face. "She's over the moon."

"You sure you want to take _her_?" Blue asked as said friends reacted with squeals of their own, bouncing up and down in their seats. "She's pretty, but her crowd ain't exactly known for their brain power. _Most_ of her crowd," the big black boy amended after Gerry and Ronnie cleared their throats.

"Yeah, she ain't as smart as Tamsin and Emma," he admitted, "but she's a nice girl. She likes to dance, for one thing, and I think she was hoping I'd ask her." He said this last with a flattered little smile.

"You _think_?" Eddie laughed. "Lisa was this close to having an 'I love you, Alan Bosley' billboard set up on the front lawn. You sure took your time coming around and asking her."

"And speaking of _taking your time_," Petey broke in loudly, "Sunshine, when are _you_ gonna get up the nerve to ask Tamsin to Homecoming?"

"Oops." Ronnie remembered that he still hadn't told his friends about what had happened last Wednesday. "Guys, I forgot—"

"Man, how can you _forget_? You've been mooning about it since forever! Didn't Boone make you run laps again yesterday for not paying attention?"

"But—"

Petey pushed back his tray and stood. "I'm getting real sick of this, Sunshine. So sick, in fact, that we're gonna ask Tamsin to the dance for you, right now."

Ronnie gaped as his other teammates rose. "What?" The grins on Alan and Eddie's faces told him that they had something up their sleeves. "But I—"

"Sit!" Petey jerked his head in the direction of Tamsin's table. "Come on, fellas."

"But I already asked her," Ronnie said as his friends strode purposefully toward Tamsin's table.

Gerry and Big Julius, the only ones left sitting with him, laughed. "I think they'll find that out soon enough," Big Julius said.

"Tamsin Lee!" Petey called out, making her jump and everyone in the cafeteria look their way. He and his friends quickly formed a semicircle before her. "The Titans have something to ask you!" 

"What the heck…?" Tamsin sputtered as the group of boys burst into song.

It's not the way you smile that touched my heart

It's not the way you kiss that tears me apart

Whoa-oh, many, many, many nights go by

I sit alone at home and I cry over you

What can I do?

Can't help myself—

'Cause baby, it's you… 

"What are they doing?" she exclaimed, horrified. All around them, students were gathered, watching the spectacle. Even Uncle Jon, who was the lunch monitor that day, was looking on with interest.

"I haven't the foggiest idea," Emma said. An appreciative cheer rose from the Titans' audience when Petey slid to his knees at their feet, arms held out beseechingly.

"Maybe he just felt like serenading you," Sally Jane suggested.

"That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard," Tamsin grated. Why in the world would _Petey_ want to sing to her? She shot Emma a confused frown, but the other girl just shrugged helplessly.

"It's so romantic, Tammy!" Jeannie sighed. 

"I wish Sunshine would do something like this when he asks me to Homecoming," Miranda said wistfully.

"Oh, my God!" Robin gasped. "Tamsin, maybe Petey wants to ask you to Homecoming!"

Tamsin and Emma looked at each other, stunned. "But—" She was just about to tell them that she had already agreed to go with Ronnie when Rev stepped forward for a solo.

Whoa-oh, it doesn't matter what they say

I know I'm gonna love you any old way

What can I do when it's true?

Don't want nobody, nobody

'Cause baby, it's you…

"What's he doing?" Sally Jane asked. "Does _he_ want to ask you, too?"

"No, he does _not_," Tamsin replied.

"Maybe they want her to choose between them!" Jeannie swatted the dark-haired girl's arm. "I can't believe you've been hiding this love triangle from us all along, you sneak!"

"There is no 'love triangle'!" Tamsin hissed as she shot to her feet. Signaling the Titans to stop singing, she marched straight into their semicircle and right up to Petey. "What is the meaning of this?" she asked in a low voice as cheers erupted all around them.

"We're asking you to Homecoming!" the black boy replied in the same low voice. "For Sunshine," he added, grinning.

"You want to know if I will go to Homecoming with _Ronnie_?" she asked, relieved. "You don't know that he already asked me and I said yes?"

Petey's eyes and his grin widened. _"You're going?"_ he exclaimed, loud enough for everyone to hear. "That's great!" He picked her up and hugged her as the entire cafeteria burst into loud applause. "I'll kill him for not telling us!"

* * *

"That must be the most special thing any guy has done for any girl to get her to come with him to Homecoming," Jeannie gushed in the third floor girls' room a short while later.

"It was smart, too," Robin laughed. "I mean, if he asks you in public, you've got to be pretty cold-blooded to turn him down, right?" She smiled at Tamsin. "He's a great guy, Tamsin. I'm sure you'll have fun at the dance."

Tamsin blushed. "Yeah," she mumbled.

"Maybe you can double with Alan and me," Lisa offered with a big smile. She hadn't stopped grinning since she broke the news to them that Alan had asked her. "I mean, since Petey's a football player, it's perfectly OK."

"Gee, thanks." 

"What about _me_?" Miranda whined to Lisa.

"OK, we'll triple-date," the other girl amended generously, "once Sunshine asks you."

"_If_ he asks me," the redheaded cheerleader moaned. 

"Why don't you just ask him yourself?" Tamsin asked Miranda. All the melodrama over when Ronnie would finally ask the redheaded girl to Homecoming had always been annoying, and after the scene Petey had caused in the cafeteria that afternoon, Tamsin was in a rather testy mood.

Miranda was clearly not in a very good mood, either. "_I_ can't ask _him_!" she said scornfully. "It just isn't done!"

"This is the seventies."

"Well, if you're so smart, why didn't _you_ ask _your_ date to Homecoming?"

"Because he asked me first!"

"Come on, you two, don't fight," Robin broke in gently. "If you don't want to ask Sunshine to Homecoming yourself, Miranda, then you have no choice but to wait for him until he does. Or why don't you go with someone else? Hasn't Ryan asked you?"

"Yes, he's asked me," Miranda replied. "I said I'd get back to him. I'm still holding out for Sunshine."

"I'm sure he'll ask you soon, Miranda," Sally Jane consoled her. "Who would he ask if not you?"

"Who, indeed?" Emma echoed with an uneasy glance in Tamsin's direction. While Tamsin didn't care either way, the blonde girl was clearly not looking forward to Miranda finding out that the "mystery man" had been Ronnie all along.

Concluding Remarks: Up next — Miranda finds out about the mystery man!


	8. Nights in White Satin

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA, and I suppose Herndon High School belongs to the city of Herndon, VA. The original Titans and the Basses belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. "Nights In White Satin" is a 1972 song by the Moody Blues, while "Where Is the Love" is by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway.The VW Bug belongs to Volkswagen. The hickey scene was inspired by the Susan Elizabeth Phillips novel _This Heart of Mine_. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, Brian Richter & the Tremors, Russ Gruber and assorted TC Williams students and personnel.

****

Technical Notes: What happens to Ronnie in this chapter was inspired by one of the factors that kept the real Ronnie Bass out of the NFL.

__

1-12-03: Revisions have been made to the football scene in this chapter to incorporate Livia Liana's additional input. Thanks, Livia, for looking out for me even after I've posted!

****

Author's Notes: Thanks to Livia Liana for the in-depth football beta read and encouraging review. Thanks also to Joyce and the repeat reviewers. (Don't worry, Lela, Tamsin's mother will be coming out to clear things up later in this story. You'll have to wait until then, though…)

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Chapter Seven — Nights In White Satin

On November 18th, Homecoming Saturday, the Titans hosted the Herndon Hornets. The stands were a blaze of red and white as the home crowd turned out in full force to support their football team.

The TC Williams High School band struck up a lively tune. "All right, let's get out there!" Coach Boone clapped his hands briskly and the Titans made their trademark entrance to rousing cheers from the bleachers.

As they took the field, Ronnie searched the stands and found Tamsin seated in her usual spot in the very front row. She gave him a little smile and wave before averting her eyes. She really didn't like watching the warm-up.

The Hornets won the toss and chose to receive the kickoff. "Get to it, boys!" Coach Yoast yelled as the defensive line prepared to take the field.

"No mercy, no mercy!" Gerry added.

"Try not to break anything, man," Ronnie joked to Ryan. "Bandages don't go well with a tux."

The defensive linebacker shoved on his helmet and grinned. Miranda had agreed to go with him to that night's Homecoming Dance just the day before. Ronnie thought it was rather callous of her to keep Ryan hanging like that for so long — if that had been him, he would have looked for another date long ago — but there was no raining on the other boy's parade. "Aw, heck, Sunshine, white goes with anything!"

The Titans started the game with a bang as Big Julius intercepted the Hornets' very first pass and carried the ball through the Herndon offense all the way to the end zone. After the kicking team drilled in the extra point, the score stood at 7-0, Titans. "First blood!" Boone exclaimed. "Good work, boys!"

Ronnie and the rest of the Titans' offense came on after a Herndon timeout. He stole another look at the bleachers before squatting down behind Blue. _"All right — READY!"_ he bellowed. _"RED 10! RED 10! Hut-hut!"_

The ball was snapped and Ronnie pitched it to Alan, who slipped through the Hornets' defense and ran thirty yards before they could catch up with him. As three Hornet linebackers closed in on him, Alan threw a blind lateral pass to one of the halfbacks, whom Boone had lured away from the basketball team.

__

"Hey, Frederick!" Ronnie heard Blue call as Jim Frederick leapt into the air and came down running with the ball in his possession. _"Don't dribble it!"_

With the ball tucked safely under his arm, Jim neatly dodged a charging Hornet, practically jumped over another and landed on his rear just inside the Titans' goal line. The whistle blew and the stands went wild. 14-0, Titans.

The Titans never looked back from that early lead. Ronnie threw complete to practically all his receivers and, after a successful field goal, they widened the gap to 17-0. They were leading 24-0 when the Hornets scored their first touchdown early in the second quarter.

Big Julius and the rest of the Titans defense, however, were determined not to let the Hornets score again. When they weren't completely smothering the Hornets, they were forcing turnovers, and the ball never remained in Herndon possession for long. A Hornet field goal attempt failed, and the score stood at 24-7 in favor of the Titans going into the second half.

"All right, guys," Ronnie told his teammates in the huddle, "Boone says to slow things down. We are to score when we can, but we've got Herndon playing _our_ game, and we get to set the pace. Got that?" 

"Slow's good," Blue said. "At least we get to save our energy for the dance later, eh, Sunshine?"

He chuckled along with the others. "Shut up, man. Let's go."

They broke the huddle and took their positions at the line of scrimmage. _"BLUE 14!"_ Ronnie called. _"BLUE 14! Hut-hut!"_

The ball was snapped to him and he pretended to look for an open man as the Titans' receivers ran their patterns against the defense. Ronnie then began to run for the end zone himself.

He seemed to have misjudged the Hornets, however, and they started after him a bit too soon for his comfort. Russ Gruber, Herndon's All-American center, was pounding after him when Ronnie ran out of bounds to stop the clock. Gruber and his teammates, however, couldn't or wouldn't stop, and there was a pileup on the sidelines.

Ronnie knew that there was something wrong when he went down. Besides the familiar aches from having five or six big bruisers knock the wind out of him, there was also pain slicing through a place that made his blood run cold. 

"Sunshine?" His teammates' concerned faces popped into view. "What's up, man?" Blue asked. "Is anything wrong?"

He took a deep breath and tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice. "Something happened to my left knee." _Relax,_ he told himself. _Forget about the horrified looks on their faces. Football injuries happen all the time. Rev was injured last year and he survived. Sure, he's not playing anymore this year, but he's still alive and that's what's important, right?_

Presently, Dr. Weston, the Titans' team doctor, arrived on the scene. "Sunshine says it's his knee, Doctor," Alan reported. "His left knee."

Dr. Weston made sure the rest of Ronnie was still working properly before focusing on the knee. He prodded and bent it gently, drawing a hiss from the injured boy. "Nothing's broken or dislocated, thank God," the doctor announced, "but there seems to be a strain. I'm afraid you're out of the game, son."

Ronnie nodded slowly as his teammates helped him to his feet. _At least we're leading. _Leaning on Eddie, he limped to the Titans' bench to applause and cheering from the home crowd. 

He smiled and waved up at the bleachers, but Tamsin wasn't looking at him. She and Sheryl seemed to be yelling at someone across the field. Judging from the outraged expressions on their faces and the amused one on Emma's, they looked to be demanding Russ Gruber's head. The thought cheered him.

However, Matthew Furness, the Titans' second-string quarterback, needed more than that to cheer him up. "I-I can't!" was all the black sophomore could say. 

"Sure you can!" Ronnie told him as his leg was propped up and he was given an icepack.

"B-but I'm not ready!" Matt was probably feeling the same way Ronnie had that night long ago, when he had been forced to step into Rev's shoes; but instead of trying to calm himself down, Matt looked like he was well on his way to a heart attack. Ronnie feared that he would either have to talk firmly to the guy or slap him silly. _You're the colonel,_ Boone had told him. _You've got to command your troops._

"Get a grip on yourself, Matt!" Ronnie barked, trying to sound as authoritative as possible while seated on the bench with an icepack on his knee. "You think Boone was ready when he and his twelve brothers and sisters lost their parents in the same month? You think _I_ was ready when I had to take over at QB? No, man, we had to step in and just do the best we can. You've got to do the same."

"B-but I can't read defense!" the other boy sputtered. "I haven't played a real game since junior high!"

Having used up all his bluster feeding Matt the line about Boone's brothers and sisters, Ronnie switched to the "kindly big brother" routine. "Sure you can read defense. We looked through the Herndon films together, remember? You picked up that blitz signal faster than I did. And hey, you won't be alone out there. The other guys won't let anyone touch you." He thumped Matt's shoulder pads consolingly. "You have to go talk to Boone now. Just do what he tells you and you'll be fine.

"It'll be cool," he told the nervous second-string quarterback. "Trust me."

* * *

With intensified defense and Matthew Furness finding his legs after a shaky start, the Titans managed to hang on to their lead and eventually won the game, 34-28, giving TC Williams High School something to celebrate about at that night's Homecoming Dance.

"Are you sure you're all right, Ronnie?" Mrs. Bass asked as she and her husband drove him back to school for the dance.

"I'm fine, Mom," he assured her. Ronnie was feeling much better now that he knew that it was only a mild knee strain and that he would only be out for about two weeks. "Dr. Weston gave me something for the pain."

"Where are you supposed to meet Tamsin again?" Col. Bass wanted to know.

"She said she'd be waiting just inside the entrance from the parking lot," Ronnie replied. 

His father turned down the street leading to the school. "I don't see why we couldn't have picked her up and given both you kids a ride," he grumbled. "It's the proper thing to do."

Mrs. Bass sighed. "Her uncle is chaperoning the dance, Bill," she said patiently. "So, since he was already going, the girl decided to save us a trip and arrive here with him. And since Mr. Graham already brought a car, they can give Ronnie a ride home after the dance is over." 

"I still think it's highly unconventional," Col. Bass insisted in a repressive tone of voice that made Ronnie grin. His father was a cool guy in many respects, but still pretty puritanical in others. He was especially uptight about good manners and right conduct.

"But very practical," Mrs. Bass told him as they entered the school parking lot.

Her husband grunted as they parked near Mr. Graham's VW Bug, right by the entrance into the school. Ronnie's grip tightened on the corsage in his lap. The plastic florist's box was faintly slippery and a little cold from the refrigerator. 

Col. Bass opened the car door for his wife, then helped Ronnie out of the car. "You sure you don't need a cane?"

"No, Dad," he replied as they walked to the double doors leading into the school building. His knee still felt a little tender, but he wasn't limping as badly as he had been at home. "Dr. Weston said I just had to take it easy for a few weeks, that's all."

"He also said no dancing," his mother reminded him. 

"Yes, ma'am," he replied before following her inside through the door his father was holding open.

Sure enough, Tamsin was waiting inside with Mr. Graham. "Goodness, Tamsin, look at you!" Mrs. Bass was exclaiming when Ronnie and Col. Bass walked up to them. "That's a very distinctive dress you have on."

"Thank you, ma'am," Tamsin replied with a shy smile. Unlike the frilly prom dresses Ronnie had come to expect at formal dances, her dress was simple, accented only with a sash at her waist, but the rich, dark blue of the material emphasized the paleness of her skin. A matching wrap covered her shoulders.

Mr. Graham grinned at Ronnie then. The teacher was wearing a smart black tuxedo not unlike his own. He, too, wasn't wearing a ruffled shirt. "Hey, Sunshine. How are you doing?"

"Fine, thanks, Mr. Graham."

"How's the leg?"

"Dr. Weston said it was a mild knee strain. I'll be out for a few weeks." His mother nudged him in Tamsin's direction and he blushed self-consciously. "Hey, Tamsin," he greeted her. "You look beautiful."

She smiled at him, not blinking when the flashbulb of Mrs. Bass's camera went off. "Thank you."

"I, uh, got you this," he said, holding up the corsage box. 

More flashbulbs went off as Mrs. Bass and Mr. Graham took picture after picture of him fastening the white rosebuds to her wrist, and of Tamsin pinning a red carnation to his lapel. "All right, can I have a picture of the two of you, please?" Mr. Graham asked. 

"Just one picture," Tamsin pleaded. Ronnie, too, wanted the photo session to be over quickly so his parents could disappear before any of his friends happened by.

Mr. Graham grinned at them. "If you want only one, sweetie, you'd better not blink!"

They had to pose three times, however, before he and Mrs. Bass were satisfied. "Thank God that's over," Ronnie muttered after they were finally released. They took advantage of Mr. Graham's accompanying the Basses to the parking lot to escape to the gym, where the dance was being held.

"Sorry about that," Tamsin murmured back. "Uncle Jon promised my mom he'd send pictures."

"Don't worry about it," he assured her. "At least no one saw us."

"Heyyy!" Gerry called out, grinning, from just outside the gym. Big Julius, Emma and Sharon were standing with him. "Photo session all over?"

Tamsin made a face as the boys laughed. "Yes, thank you for asking."

"Hi, Tamsin," Emma greeted her with a smile. "You look great."

She smiled back at her friends. "Thanks. So do both of you." That night, Emma was wearing a dusky pink dress, while Sharon was in pale green.

"Well, now," Big Julius said, offering his arm to his girlfriend, "what do you guys say we bring these ladies inside and show them off?"

"Sounds like a plan," Gerry agreed, smiling at Emma.

They entered the gym, which had been decorated with balloons and crepe paper streamers in the school colors, and grabbed a table near the dance floor. Ronnie had just eased himself down into a chair when Petey and his date arrived, followed closely by Alan, Ryan, and their dates.

Miranda, dazzling that night in an off-the-shoulder dress of light blue shot with silver, made a beeline for Ronnie. "Ohhh, Sunshine, you poor thing!" she cooed, sitting down beside him in the chair Tamsin was just about to take. 

Tamsin raised a startled eyebrow at Emma and sat down next to her friend as Miranda fawned over Ronnie some more. "How bad is it?" the redheaded girl asked.

"Not bad," he assured her politely. "I'll only be out a few weeks, that's all."

"You're only saying that so I won't worry," she pouted.

"What's he supposed to say?" Tamsin muttered. "That he's in absolute agony?" 

Miranda looked in their direction when Emma giggled. "Oh, hi, Emma, hi, Tamsin," she said with a cool little smile. "I almost didn't see you there."

"Nevertheless, it's lovely to see you," Tamsin replied sweetly and quite a few of the people at their table snickered. 

"Someone sounds jealous," Petey murmured in her ear.

"Oh, please," she whispered back, waving away the apologetic look Ronnie shot her from across the table, "I know it wasn't the most polite reply, but really, what can you say to a remark like that?"

"You've got a point, sweetness." He chuckled and nudged Ryan. "Hey, Ry, what's up?"

"Nothin' much, man," the blond boy replied.

"That was a nasty cut you got at the game this afternoon."

"It's not as bad as it looks." Ryan grinned and touched the small bandage across the bridge of his nose. "Besides, chicks dig scars."

"No, they don't," Liz Lindros said as she walked up with Robin to say hello to Tamsin and Emma.

Ryan gaped at her in feigned shock. "Why, Liz, what a delightful surprise!" he exclaimed. "Someone actually asked _you_ to Homecoming?"

Liz smiled coolly. "Funny, Ryan, but I wouldn't make fun of that kind of thing if I were you." 

Tamsin laughed, but quickly covered it up. Her friend had gotten Ryan good that time, but she didn't find being abandoned by one's date all too funny at the moment.

"Hey, you two," Eddie said from across the table, "behave."

"As my almighty older brother commands," Liz retorted with an elaborate bow.

Robin chuckled. "Come on, Liz, let's go find a table."

Ryan scowled after them as they walked away. "So did someone ask her to Homecoming or not?"

* * *

Brian Richter & the Tremors were playing that night. It seemed to Ronnie that they were the only band in Alexandria: they were also at last year's prom, and at Miranda's birthday party this past summer. They weren't so bad, though, he averred. At least they had a repertoire wide enough to make both Blue and Alan happy.

"It's too bad you can't dance tonight," Miranda sighed.

"Yeah, too bad," Ronnie mumbled. Across the table from him, Tamsin was watching couples whirl past on the dance floor with a faintly longing expression on her face. At least she didn't look like she was mad at him, he thought. Then again, she hadn't looked at him all night.

He couldn't blame her. Miranda had been glued to his side all that time and didn't look like she was planning to leave any time soon. 

Maybe she needed a little hurrying along. "Say, Miranda," Ronnie ventured as the band launched into "Where Is the Love," "that's a real good song. Why don't you and Ryan dance?"

"But I can't just leave you here all by yourself!" the redheaded girl protested. 

"I'll be fine," he told her. "You, on the other hand, are here with someone."

Miranda laughed. "Oh, Ryan doesn't mind; do you, Ry?" she cooed.

Ryan, sitting on Miranda's other side, gave them a smile. "'Course not." But as Miranda turned back to him, Ronnie saw him stifle a yawn. 

Ronnie groaned silently. This was terrible. His teammate was obviously having a rotten time and Tamsin probably thought he was ignoring her on purpose. Why wouldn't Miranda leave him alone? "But, Miranda, Ryan's been sitting on his behind all night, and I know for a fact that he's a great dancer."

"You're no slouch yourself."

__

Good grief. 

"Hey, Tamsin, wanna dance?" Gerry asked as he rolled past, a wide grin on his face and his Homecoming King crown askew on his head.

He spun his wheelchair around in crazy circles and Tamsin laughed for the first time in about twenty minutes (by Ronnie's watch). "You'll have to ditch your present passenger first," she joked back. 

"Darn it, Gerry," Emma squealed from her boyfriend's lap, "my shoe is falling off!"

"Whoops," he apologized, the grin never leaving his face. "Sorry about that, sugar."

Ryan got to his feet after Gerry and Emma wheeled away and walked over to Tamsin. "Want to dance?" he asked her just as the Tremors struck up a Jackson 5 tune.

Tamsin blinked. "Pardon?" She'd been busy watching Gerry and Emma that she wasn't quite sure whether she had heard correctly. 

"I'm asking you to dance."

"With you? Now?" She blushed, hesitating, then finally nodded decisively after glancing at Ronnie and Miranda. "Sure," Tamsin said, removing her wrap and flinging it over the back of her chair. "I'd love to."

Ryan was a good dancer, she thought after they had gone through a couple of fast songs, and he wasn't afraid to make up crazy new steps. Liz Lindros was always going on about what a jerk he was, and he definitely was on the cocky side; but thanks to him, Tamsin was actually having some fun.

They eyed each other awkwardly when a slow song came on. "Uh, we can sit this one out if you want," Tamsin said, smiling reassuringly. "I mean, this kind of thing is mainly for serious couples, anyway."

Ryan grinned back. It seemed as if dancing was cheering him up, too. "Who cares if we're not a serious couple? I say we dance. It sure beats sitting around all night." 

"You can say that again."

They had barely begun, however, when there was a tap on her shoulder. "May I cut in?" 

Tamsin smiled graciously at Miranda, who was standing behind her. "Of course. Thanks, Ryan," she told the blond boy as she stepped aside for his date.

"Anytime," he replied with a grateful grin as Miranda wrapped herself around him.

Tamsin started toward her chair when Big Julius charged up to her. "Hey, Tamsin, wanna dance?"

"Aren't you here with someone?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Sharon said her feet hurt." Sure enough, his girlfriend was seated at their table, rubbing one foot. "To tell you the truth, she ain't got much stamina for a sister."

Suddenly, Sharon winked at her. Big Julius grinned down at Tamsin, obviously in on the plan. "Unless your feet hurt, too, and you need to sit down," the black boy said innocently.

"I most definitely do _not_," Tamsin declared. She knew she should be getting back to Ronnie since Miranda was otherwise occupied, but she didn't want to sit down again so soon. "I'd love to dance with you, Julius." _Let Ronnie be the wallflower for a change,_ she thought as she stepped into Big Julius' arms and shot Sharon a grateful look. "Thanks for asking me."

"Well, seeing as your real date can't dance tonight, the rest of us guys have to step in and make sure no one steals you away."

* * *

By the time Tamsin excused herself to go to the girls' room almost an hour later, she had danced with Eddie, Rev and Petey, aside from Ryan and Big Julius. If Ronnie put his friends up to it, she thought as she freshened up her lipstick, he deserved to be forgiven for staying away from her all night. 

Then again, being stuck with Miranda for any period of time was punishment enough.

"For a girl who barely danced with her date all night, someone sure is having fun," Jeannie drawled from behind her.

"There's no harm in having fun," she replied with a sugary smile.

"It's hardly the way to repay Petey after all the trouble he went through to ask you to Homecoming."

"Oh, don't worry about him," Robin said. "He's having a great time. Even danced with me once."

"Well, what kind of a date is Tamsin if she can't keep Petey entertained?" Sally Jane asked.

Tamsin scowled. "I don't measure my womanhood by how well I can 'entertain' a guy. Besides, what kind of a date would Petey be if he expected me to baby-sit him all night?"

Robin laughed. "Baby-sitting is a great way to describe it."

"Tammy, I can't believe you!" Jeannie exclaimed. "What you do tonight will affect your relationship _forever_! How will he ever take you seriously if you ignore him all night?"

"So what am I supposed to do?" Tamsin asked. "Get him punch when he's thirsty?"

"That's a good idea," Sally Jane said. "And you might want to dance with him more often."

"Then I'll rub his feet when he gets tired?" she pressed irritably. Her head was beginning to hurt again.

"That's a great way of showing that you care," Robin told her with a straight face.

"Don't encourage her, Robin," Jeannie admonished when Tamsin snickered. "Sally's and my point is that it would be great to be more attentive."

"Why don't I just give him a nice good night kiss when he brings me home?" Tamsin suggested. "That's really all guys are after, anyway. Well, that's not _all_ they're after," she amended thoughtfully, "but that's all they'll get from me."

"Oh, Tammy, one measly kiss isn't going to fix things!"

Tamsin rubbed at the spot between her eyebrows. "Things don't even need to be fixed," she said in a tired voice, returning to the point Robin made ages ago. "He's already having a good time as it is."

"But he's not having it with _you_!"

__

Good grief. Tamsin shoved her lipstick back into her purse, all patience gone. "Fine," she bit out. If the only way to stop the inane prattle was to take their advice, then so be it.

"Where are you going?" Robin wanted to know.

"I'm dragging my date into a broom closet," she replied tersely. "That should be _attentive_ enough, don't you think?" Tamsin charged out of the girls' room, almost knocking over someone on her way in, and plunged into the crowd on the dance floor.

Ronnie saw her coming. She was striding purposefully toward the table, dark braid swaying behind her, bare arms swinging as if she was going to elbow anyone who stood in her way. He could swear he saw steam coming out of her ears. It would have been funny if he didn't have the feeling that her current state had something to do with him.

Tamsin walked up to the table and threw her purse onto it like a hat into a ring. "Come with me."

"Where are we going?" he asked her retreating back.

She didn't answer, just kept walking. Ronnie rose to his feet and followed her as fast as he could, past dancing couples and half-empty tables. "Uh, Tamsin, where are we going?" he asked again.

Again, she didn't answer. She stalked out of the gym and turned left, down a dark, quiet corridor. Her behavior confused him, but he limped after her nevertheless. "Hey, Tamsin, I'm having trouble keeping up with you…my leg…"

Tamsin finally stopped when they were a good way down the corridor and the noise and music had grown considerably fainter. There was a rustle and a cloud of jasmine perfume as she whirled around to face him. "I need you to bite me."

Ronnie blinked. "What?"

"I need you to bite me," she repeated. "Give me a hickey." 

His eyebrows met in a perplexed frown. "Do you even know what a hickey _is_?"

"Of course I do. I'm not stupid."

"Now, why the heck would you need one?"

"Because it has been brought to my attention that I have been neglecting my date shamefully," she told him crisply. "If you give me a hickey, then it means you got some action and the girls in the bathroom will finally shut up."

Ronnie folded his arms and frowned in her general direction. "You want me to give you a hickey so you can brag to them that you scored."

"No, I need a hickey so they'll know that _you_ scored," she explained, as if her take on things made more sense.

"Tamsin, this is nuts. You barely speak to me all night, and when you do, you ask me to bite you."

"My barely speaking to you all night isn't all _my_ fault," Tamsin pointed out. "And at least I'm asking you to bite me, not telling you that I hate you and to take me home and never call me again."

He chuckled briefly. "You've got a point. So you _are_ sort of having fun?" he asked. "Even if we didn't hang around each other much tonight?"

"Yes." She sounded much calmer now. "Thank you for getting your friends to dance with me."

"Oh, I didn't ask them to do that," Ronnie admitted, grinning in the darkness. "They thought it up all by themselves."

"You've got some really good friends, then."

"Yeah." He stepped closer to her. "So, about this hickey…"

Tamsin gave a small cough. Now that she had calmed down a bit, she realized that dragging him into a dark corridor probably wasn't the best way to handle things. "You don't have to give me one if it makes you uncomfortable."

Ronnie touched her arm, making her jump. "Oh, I'm not uncomfortable. Just surprised."

"What are you doing?" she asked when his hand wandered upwards to her bare shoulder. She blushed as goose bumps spread over her skin.

"Trying to find the right spot for your hickey."

"You'd better keep those hands where they're acceptable."

"Yes, ma'am." He bent toward her and his lips brushed her hairline.

There was a clean, minty scent coming from his shirt. "You're way off aim."

"In case you didn't notice," Ronnie chuckled, finding her cheek, "it's kind of dark and you're kind of short. And besides," he added as he moved to the other cheek, "I'm just getting warmed up." 

Tamsin sucked in her breath as his free hand cupped her chin, angling her face up toward his. "I don't think—"

She had intended to tell him that maybe a hickey wasn't that good of an idea anymore, but when their noses bumped and his lips settled over hers, the words evaporated on her and she couldn't think at all.

__

Whoa. Ronnie put his arms around her, drawing her closer. He felt her stumble slightly and clutch his arms for support. She kissed him back carefully, as if she was afraid of making a mistake. There was no worry of that, he thought dimly as he deepened the kiss. This was Tamsin and he didn't care about mistakes. 

She made a small noise in her throat and she slipped her arms around his neck, enveloping him in jasmine. 

Suddenly, there was a discreet _ahem_. Tamsin backed away and Ronnie slowly became aware that there was a third person in the corridor. If the silhouette was anything to go by, then the newcomer was Coach Boone. _Great._

"Go on inside," Ronnie murmured to Tamsin. "I'll follow in a while."

"Alright. Excuse me," she mumbled, half to him and half to Boone, before walking quickly away.

"That you, Sunshine?" Boone asked after a moment's pause.

"Yeah, Coach." Ronnie was pretty sure you couldn't get kicked off the football team for sneaking away to make out in a dark corridor, but you could never tell with Boone. Or Coach Yoast, for that matter, he amended wryly as he tried to wipe his mouth free of any traces of lipstick. Yoast probably would have delivered a stern lecture on chastity before benching him, even though coming out here had been Tamsin's idea.

At least it hadn't been Mr. Graham who had caught them.

Ronnie heard a soft chuckle come from the coach's direction. "I heard laughter was the best medicine," Boone remarked in an amused voice, "but that stuff's pretty good, too."

He grinned. It was dark, anyway, so no one could see him. "Yeah."

"Go on back inside, son. I think the coast is clear."

"Thanks, Coach."

Ronnie returned to the gym in time to hear Miranda's shrill scream. 

"You _bitch_!"


	9. Break On Through To the Other Side

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The VW Bug belongs to Volkswagen. This chapter is named after the 1967 Doors song — it's older than the song titles I usually use, but perfect for my purposes. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, various TC Williams High students and personnel, and Miranda's parents. I also own Ronnie's orange juice, but he can have it.

****

Introductory Remarks: Thanks to Akila Blakemore and flybirdfly (I uploaded the last chapter right before I read your reviews) and to my "loyal readers"! Since Rhia spoke so eloquently on your behalf, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

__

Chapter Eight — Break On Through (To the Other Side)

"You _bitch_!"

Tamsin blinked at the angry redhead standing before her. She'd just come from her very first kiss and was still a little light-headed. "Are you talking to me?"

"Damn right I am." Miranda glared at her, fists clenched, obviously spoiling for a fight. "You're here with Sunshine!"

That got everyone's attention and a crowd began to gather. "Oh, _that_," Tamsin said. Maybe someone saw her drag Ronnie out of the gym, or one of the Titans told Miranda, or something. It didn't matter. "Yes, I'm here with him. So?"

"_So_, you should have told me!"

"What for?" Tamsin retorted. Ronnie pushed his way through the crowd but she held him off with one hand. She then folded her arms and looked coolly up at the redheaded girl. "It was none of your business."

"It is too my business!"

"I hate to break this to you, honey, but what goes on between him and me has nothing to do with you."

"But you _knew_ I wanted him back! You should have told me!"

"Why, because we're friends? _Please._" Everything Tamsin had ever wanted to say to Miranda suddenly bubbled up into her throat, demanding to be let out. She fought to keep her cool. Speaking slowly bought her time to organize her thoughts. "If I had told you the day after he asked me, we would have had this pleasant little scene a lot sooner. But that would have been better, wouldn't it?" Tamsin asked. "I would have been rid of you and your ladies-in-waiting, for one thing; and you wouldn't be having this hissy-fit in front of so many people, for another.

"And even if you'd known that we'd come here together," she went on, "I don't think that would have stopped you from hogging him all night. Some _friend_."

Miranda turned red. "'Some friend' is right! Some friend _you_ were — all this time I was helping you, and you've been going behind my back! What kind of lies did you tell him about me?"

"We never talked about you!" Tamsin snapped. "And excuse me, I let you send all the signals you wanted and I let Ronnie make his choice. When he asked me to Homecoming, I told him you wanted to go with him." She shrugged. "Sorry, but even when he had the chance to ask you, he still asked me."

__

"Aaaawwww!" several male voices chorused. Tamsin was fairly certain that they were all Titans.

"I don't believe you," Miranda snarled.

"You can ask him if you want. He's right over there."

She bit her tongue as the redheaded girl turned to him. Ronnie was definitely nicer than Tamsin was, and he did have a history with Miranda. Maybe he wouldn't answer any questions put to him.

Then Miranda suddenly turned back to her, murder in her eye, one hand raised. _"Fight!"_ someone yelled delightedly.

Tamsin blocked the blow before it could connect, wrapping Miranda's forearm around her own and trapping the other girl's hand in the crook of her elbow. Miranda's nails were digging painfully into her skin and Tamsin was afraid she would end up breaking her own arm, but she held on. She refused to give her opponent the satisfaction of landing a hit. 

Miranda's other hand came up and Tamsin caught that, too. "Look, Ronnie's a really nice guy," she said calmly, tightening her hold, "but I don't see the need to brawl over him!" 

"But he's _mine_!" Miranda cried.

Oh, no, she was starting to snivel. "Well, you're embarrassing him and you're embarrassing yourself by carrying on in public like this," she pointed out in a low, clipped voice. It was actually embarrassing Tamsin, too, but she didn't think Miranda cared too much about her right now. "So instead of pursuing your little melodrama and absolutely ruining your chances of ever getting Ronnie back, why don't you just get out of my face, go sit down somewhere and maybe take a Valium?"

__

"Go to hell!"

That did it. All patience finally gone, Tamsin hissed something unladylike under her breath and shoved Miranda away from her as hard as she could, sending the redheaded girl flying right into a couple of bystanders. The dainty little purse that had dangled from Miranda's elbow all through the incident finally slid off her arm. It fell and disgorged a pack of cigarettes that flew across the floor before hitting a highly polished black dress shoe. 

The owner of the dress shoe bent down to pick it up. "Ladies," Mr. Hilliard said as he tucked the cigarettes into his jacket pocket, "please be in my office first thing Monday morning."

* * *

The squat shape of the telephone wavered as Ronnie viewed it first through the bottom of his glass, then through the side, and then over the top of it as he put the empty glass down on the counter.

He'd vowed to call after he finished his orange juice. 

But the carton wasn't quite empty yet.

"Quit it," he muttered to himself. "The longer you put it off, the harder it'll be." Dragging the telephone across the counter, Ronnie dialed Mr. Graham's number before he could stop himself and took a deep breath as he listened to the ringing on the other end of the wire.

Tamsin picked up after a few rings. "Hello?"

"Hey, Tamsin. It's Ronnie."

"Oh. Hi, Ronnie." She didn't sound as happy to hear from him as she usually did, but after what went down at Homecoming last night, he didn't blame her. 

"I just wanted to know if you were OK. I mean, after…uh, you know…last night."

"Oh. Well, I'm fine, thanks for asking." She chuckled briefly. "The sun still came up this morning and I'm still alive."

He smiled. "That's good to hear. How are your arms?"

"My arms?"

"Yeah, your arms." There had been red marks on them last night, where Miranda had held her tightly and maybe even scratched her.

"They're fine. No bruises or anything." 

"Good. So…" He drummed his fingers on the countertop. "You have to go to Hilliard's office tomorrow."

"Hmm."

"D'you suppose he'll give you detention?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe Mr. Graham can get you out of it." Tamsin's uncle had been very nice about the incident on the ride home last night. He hadn't looked or sounded angry — he hadn't mentioned it at all, in fact. 

"No. It wouldn't be ethical to ask Uncle Jon to get me out of detention just because he's a teacher."

"But Miranda took the first swing."

"Well, I'm sure Mr. Hilliard has some nice surprises for her, too."

Ronnie moved his glass in little circles over the counter surface. "Look, I'm sorry she had to put on a scene like that—"

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault she's a psycho." She barked out a laugh. "_I_ should be the one apologizing. I mean, you got dragged into this whole mess."

"Tamsin, if what Miranda said about wanting me back is true, then I was involved in that mess even before you came here."

She was quiet for a moment. "Well, besides that, I also put you on the spot about, you know, what I said when you asked me to Homecoming. It's a good thing she didn't force you to answer."

"I would have told the truth."

"Oh." Her voice lightened and Ronnie could imagine her smiling. "Well, thank you. Um, Ronnie," Tamsin said after a moment's pause, "I have to go. We're going to church."

"Alright. I guess I'll see you in school, then."

"Guess you will. 'Bye."

* * *

Ronnie got more than his usual share of curious stares as he walked up the front lawn to school the next morning. Well, the incident at Homecoming last Saturday was going to be pretty hard to forget, he thought. People were probably still going to be talking about it at their hundredth high school reunion. 

He caught sight of someone who, instead of slowing down to gawk at him like everyone else, was walking quickly past. He didn't need to see the long hair streaming behind her like a banner to know that it was Tamsin, preparing to do battle.

"Hey, Tamsin!" Ronnie called, starting after her. His injury slowed him down a lot, however, and she marched up the front steps without a backward glance.

"Don't try to run after her, man," Gerry said as he rolled up next to him. "You don't want to make that knee any worse."

"Yeah," Big Julius echoed. "You'll get the chance to talk to her later."

"She didn't even look at me," Ronnie said.

In fairness to Tamsin, she didn't snub him on purpose. She didn't hear him call her name at all, being too busy thinking about her appointment with Mr. Hilliard. Uncle Jon would be there, she told herself. While they'd agreed that he wouldn't use his position as a teacher to lessen or remove her punishment, she was sure he wouldn't let the principal kill her. _You're exaggerating, Tamsin._

On her way to the principal's office, she stopped by her locker to drop off the things she wouldn't need until her afternoon classes. Tamsin quickly checked her schedule to make sure she had everything for her morning classes, then shut her locker to find Ray Budds smirking at her. "Yes?" 

"Thought you might want to know the good news," he drawled. "The wrestling team's opening a spot for you."

"Oh." She smiled coolly. "I guess they had no reason to keep _you_ around any longer. Sorry, Ray." 

Tamsin hurried off to the principal's office before he could reply. She wasn't in the mood for any kind of confrontation with that jerk. She also didn't have the time.

Uncle Jon was already in Mr. Hilliard's office when she arrived. He was standing on one side of the room, talking quietly to the principal, while Miranda and her parents stood together on the other side, watching them suspiciously.

Mr. Hilliard was the first to notice her presence. "Ah, Miss Lee is here," he said in his rumbling voice. "Now we can begin."

__

"Finally," Tamsin heard Mrs. Fleming mutter as they took their seats before the desk. 

"Alright." The principal cleared his throat and shuffled through some papers. "Well, I think you know why you have all been called here — our young ladies were involved in a little incident at last Saturday's Homecoming Dance. It was the first-ever Homecoming Dance for TC Williams High School, and I must say it was very memorable, although not in the way that I had hoped.

"Ladies," he addressed Tamsin and Miranda gravely, "you've had all day yesterday to think about what you've done. I trust that you both understand that your actions reflected poorly on the school, your families and yourselves, and that these must not go unpunished. You will each serve detention after school beginning today until Wednesday, and this will, of course, go on your permanent records."

Tamsin nodded silently. She had hoped that she would only get detention for one day, but what the heck. It wasn't like she had plans for after school, anyway. Her only worry now was how the blot on her record might affect her chances of getting into a good college. Maybe they'd consider the fact that it was a first offense.

"Why should they get the same punishment?" Mr. Fleming demanded. "Shouldn't the girl who started it —" and the look he gave Tamsin let her know exactly whom he thought started it "—get a more severe punishment?"

Mr. Hilliard cleared his throat again — he loved to do that — and nodded. "Yes, well, there is also the problem of _this_." And he laid a pack of cigarettes on the table in front of him.

"That's not mine," Tamsin blurted out. "Uh, I'm not saying it's hers," she added quickly. "Just that it's not mine."

"I know it's not yours, Miss Lee," the principal said. "And I saw where it came from. I'm afraid, Miss Fleming, that in addition to your three days' detention, I must also suspend you from cheerleading for the next month." He tapped the cigarette carton meaningfully.

Mr. and Mrs. Fleming rounded on their daughter as Uncle Jon tugged at Tamsin's hand, signaling that it was time for them to leave. Mr. Hilliard nodded to them and they hustled out of the office, leaving the Flemings behind.

"Well, compared to what Miranda's getting," Uncle Jon said as the secretary wrote up a late pass for Tamsin, "I'd say three days' detention isn't so bad."

"Yeah." Tamsin thought of the chilling looks the Flemings had given Miranda and shuddered. "It isn't."

* * *

The cafeteria didn't exactly lapse into a dead silence when Tamsin entered it that lunchtime, but she got her fair share of stares and whispers. What had happened last Saturday was definitely more humiliating than her spectacular entrance in Homeroom on the first day of school, but the way to deal with it was the same — keep your head up and pretend that nothing's bothering you. She also briefly considered blowing a few flippant kisses at the gawkers and at Miranda's friends, who were walking past her with their noses stuck ostentatiously in the air. _No autographs, please._

Tamsin ran into Robin and Corey while looking for a place to sit. "Hey, Tamsin," Corey said with a friendly smile.

"Hi," she replied politely. 

"Do you wanna sit with us?" Robin asked. She gestured toward a table occupied by Liz and a couple of other people whom Tamsin knew wrote for the school paper. "It's guaranteed Miranda-free."

Tamsin laughed. "Thanks, but I kind of feel like being by myself today. Maybe another time?"

"Just show up and we'll make a place for you," Corey told her.

She smiled. "Thanks."

Tamsin wound up taking the empty table near the tray return. No one really liked to sit there because the noise made it hard to carry on a conversation, but she didn't have anyone to talk to, anyway.

She was only a few bites into her lunch when someone snatched the book right out of her hand. "Hey there, baby sugar!" Petey grinned down at her, dangling the paperback over her head. "What are you doin', sittin' here all by yourself? Come on, sit with us!"

"Uh…no, thanks." Tamsin pretended not to see Emma and Ronnie smiling encouragement at her from the Titans' table. "I'm all set right here."

"You sure? You ain't got no one to talk to back here."

"That suits me just fine," she replied pleasantly. "I don't really feel like talking to anyone right now." She gave him a small smile. "May I have my book back?"

Petey pouted but didn't push the issue. He pretended to hand her book over, snatching it away at the last minute, a few times, before finally letting her take it from him. "You'd better sit with us tomorrow."

"We'll see about that," she called after him, grinning as he stalked away. 

It was a nice, quiet lunch despite the noise from the tray return. Maybe it would have been nice to sit with Emma and the Titans, but Tamsin really needed some time by herself. The solitary lunch was a declaration of independence from Miranda's clique. 

She went to the library after finishing her food. For the first time in over two months, she did not have to follow the flock and it felt good. The air in the library was kind of musty from all the books, but it was smoke-free. _Blessed quiet._

Almost. "Tamsin!" a female voice hissed just a few moments later.

__

"Sssshhh!"

Tamsin looked up at the sound of her name and saw Emma walking toward her, looking apologetically at the librarian. "Hi," the blonde girl whispered as she approached. "May I join you?"

She shrugged. "I guess so. Bathroom session's over already?" Tamsin asked, checking her watch as the other girl took the seat across from her. 

"I didn't go," Emma told her.

There was a trace of disgust in the reply that almost made Tamsin smile. "Smart move."

The blonde girl opened her Social Studies book and ran a studious finger down the page. "So…how did it go in the principal's office this morning?"

"Fine. I got three days' detention, if that's what you want to know."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's not as bad as what Miranda's getting."

"I still don't see why _you_ had to get punished, too. _She_ started it. Couldn't you argue self-defense?"

"I couldn't. The minute I sat down, he started giving out punishments."

"Oh." Emma drummed her pencil on the tabletop before looking at Tamsin again. "You never did like Miranda, did you?" she asked quietly.

"I wouldn't say 'never,'" Tamsin replied. "I mean, she was nice at the very first, but when she started throwing her weight around…" She made a face and shook her head. "And those friends of hers…" Her voice trailed off as she realized to whom she was speaking. "Sorry. They're your friends, too. Let's just say I just don't get along with them, all right? I'm the one with the problem."

The other girl was silent for a while. "No," she said finally. "You shouldn't change who you are just so you can get along with other people. I mean, if you can't…then you just can't."

"Thank you."

Emma leaned over her book. "But you ain't mad at me, too, are you?" 

"Why, because you're Miranda's friend? No." Tamsin gave her a small, reassuring smile. "What's between me and Miranda has nothing to do with you."

"So we can still be friends?" 

"If you want to," she replied slowly. The truth was, Tamsin wanted to be friends with Emma very much, but she had to give Emma the choice. "The others might not want you hanging out with them anymore, though, if—"

"Oh, pooh." The blonde girl made a face and an impatient noise. "Maybe I don't want to be with them anymore, either. Gerry's part of who I am, you know, and you were the only one who understood that." 

"They were nice to him, too."

"But not like you." Emma smiled hopefully at her. "I don't want to lose your friendship, Tamsin. Maybe we can…study or have lunch together, just the two of us, or talk on the phone sometimes?" She grinned. "Maybe even double date?"

Tamsin found herself grinning back. The idea of having a friend did that to a person. She would deal with the possibility of double-dating later. "It's a deal," she said, "so long as you also promise never to call me _Tammy_."

The girls giggled, earning them another loud _"Sssshhhh!"_

* * *

She hadn't spoken to him, hadn't even _looked_ at him, all day. 

Ronnie fought to remain focused on Mr. Graham's lecture that afternoon, but thoughts about Tamsin kept niggling at him. _Is withdrawal this bad?_

He rocketed out of his seat when they were dismissed. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he tried to catch up with her, but she didn't even turn around when he called her name. "_Oof!_ Sorry about that," Ronnie apologized when he accidentally walked into someone's back on his way to the front of the classroom.

The person he had bumped into turned around. It was Ray, and he didn't look happy at being jostled. "Hey, sorry, man," Ronnie repeated, stepping away.

Ray still looked annoyed. Maybe he always looked like that, Ronnie thought. He couldn't recall ever seeing any other kind of expression on the other boy's face. "I'd stick to my kind if I were you, Sunshine," Ray told him.

"That's the kind of mindset that produces rednecks," Ronnie replied coolly. "Now, don't you have better things to do than stand around and make bigoted remarks?"

The other boy snorted. "Fine, go off and have little Jap babies. It's your funeral."

"Tamsin's Chinese," Gerry said as he wheeled up next to Ronnie. "Didn't you hear her the first time?"

"Apparently not," Blue remarked. "But then you have to tell Budds something a couple of times before it sinks in, right?"

Ray glared at his former teammates. "Y'all think you're so funny?"

"And you think you're so smart?" Rev jumped in, sounding uncharacteristically sharp. There had been rumors that Ray was responsible for the injury that had taken Rev out of the lineup last year, and it seemed as if the Titans' former quarterback wasn't in the mood to forgive and forget that afternoon. "There's more than your kind in this world, brother; and if you can't live with that, then you're going down." 

Just then, Mr. Graham arrived on the scene. "Problem here, boys?" he asked mildly.

"No, sir," Gerry told him. "We were just exchanging ideas about genetics."

"Well, would you mind taking it outside? The custodian should be coming any minute now and we don't want to be in his way."

"There's no need for that," Ray said. "The discussion's over."

"See you on Wednesday, then." The teacher smiled as he left the room, then turned to the other boys. "Tamsin's in detention," he told them. 

"Yeah, we know," Gerry said. "Until Wednesday. Emma told us."

"You'll have to wait until after that if you want to talk to her," Mr. Graham went on. "Maybe you can just call her tonight."

"I think I'll wait, if that's all right," Ronnie mumbled, blushing at the teasing hoots from his friends. 

The teacher smiled at him. "Sure thing, Sunshine."

"What'll you do 'til then?" Gerry wanted to know as they made their way out of the classroom.

"I think I'll go to the weight room," Ronnie said. "There's a punching bag in there and I feel like hitting something."

"I'll join you," Rev said, then grinned. "But after that, you're on your own."

After almost an hour whaling away at the punching bags, Rev regained much of his good humor. Ronnie, however, remained wound up even after he had said goodbye to his friend. He'd had a lot on his mind since Homecoming and the thought of talking to Tamsin face to face frankly didn't help improve things. Still, maybe getting it all off his chest this afternoon would make him feel better.

Or crush him forever.

He saw her coming down the hall just moments after he shut his locker. "Tamsin!" he called resolutely, walking toward her. They were the only two people in the hall and there was no way she could pretend to not have heard him.

She stopped at her locker and dumped her books inside. "Hi, Ronnie."

When he finally came to a stop, he found himself at a loss for words. "Uh…how was detention?" he asked. _Smooth, Bass, real smooth._

Tamsin shrugged. "Fine." She shut her locker. The door still hadn't been fixed — she lifted it slightly before closing it, just the way he had shown her on the first day of school. "I got all my homework done even with Miranda trying to stare holes into my head."

Ronnie ignored the last remark. He wasn't there to talk about Miranda. "May I take you home?" he asked. "I didn't bring a car — I can't drive with this leg yet — but I can ride with you on the bus…if you want."

She gave him a small smile. "That would be nice."

All the leaves had long since fallen off the trees and the late afternoon air had a winter bite. "It should be snowing soon," Ronnie observed as they walked to the corner bus stop. 

The driver greeted them warmly when they got on — everyone knew the Titans in Alexandria — and took seats near the front. Since most of the students had already gone home and most of the people working in town weren't due out for another hour, the bus was almost empty. 

"Why didn't you tell Miranda about us?" Ronnie asked her quietly when the bus began to move.

Tamsin blushed. She briefly considered asking him why _he_ hadn't told Miranda, but it made sense that _she_ be the one to break the news, since she was the one who had been around Miranda more often. "I didn't know there was an 'us' to tell her about," she replied.

"Sure there is." He looked hurt. "We've gone out, haven't we?"

"That doesn't mean anything. I mean, it was special to me and I had a great time with you and everything," she explained hastily, "but it doesn't mean that, you know, we have a hold on each other."

"It does to me."

Her eyes widened and suddenly she couldn't look at him straight. Ronnie remembered the way she had acted on her porch the night of the Titans' first game, when he'd told her that he liked her. He remembered her telling him she'd never had to deal with boy-girl stuff like this before. "Tamsin? Talk to me."

But she didn't speak again until after they had gotten off the bus. "I had to give you the choice," she said carefully as they walked down Gartner Street. 

"So you push me away and don't tell anyone that we've gone out?"

"It's not that I didn't want people to know. I wanted to be realistic about things."

"It's a fact that we've gone out. I'd say admitting to it would have been realistic."

Tamsin hugged her books to herself but he took them from her. "I didn't want to flatter myself into thinking I had the right to cling to you like some spineless, I don't know, jellyfish or something." 

"Well, since we're an 'us,' you can cling all you want. In fact, I'm looking forward to it."

She blushed. "But are you looking forward to what people are going to say about you and me…us? I've hung around Miranda and her crowd long enough to know what kinds of things they say about people who cross them. I'm not going to put it past them to start all kinds of nasty rumors about us."

"I'm sure whatever those girls had to say has already been said today, and I don't give a damn what people think. I thought you didn't, either."

"I don't. I was just thinking about you."

He grinned. "So you do care about me?"

"Yes." Tamsin's cheeks burned. "I do. I never said I didn't."

"You had me at 'yes.'"

Her eye fell on the scar on his chin. She'd never noticed it before. It was small enough not to be disfiguring, but big enough to make him less than pretty. Ah, well, who wanted a pretty boy, anyway? "What happened here?"

"Fell out of a tree when I was a kid." Ronnie pressed his lips to her fingertips when she reached up to touch it. He was leaning in to kiss her when Uncle Jon's chartreuse VW came chugging down the street. 

Tamsin leaned away, alarmed. "Uh—"

He gave up and laughed, but didn't let go of her hand. "Just once I'd like to kiss you without interruption," he said. "Wanna go out Friday night?"

* * *

Ronnie went back to his _tai chi_ the very next day. "Ain't it a bit soon for you to be startin' that up again, man?" Petey asked as he and some of the other Titans stopped by. "Won't it hurt your bad knee?"

"It's gotten a lot better over the weekend," Ronnie replied as he turned and executed a Double Lotus Swing. "And Dr. Weston said I should start strengthening it at around this time, anyway."

"When do you think you can start practicing again?" Gerry asked.

The blond boy grinned at his friend. "I think I'll be up to it next week."

"But you should clear it with Weston first," Big Julius reminded him.

Ronnie took the time to toss off a flippant salute. "Of course, captain."

"Someone's in a good mood today," Gerry then observed in an amused voice. "I trust the little talk with Tamsin went well?"

He grinned. "Yeah, it went OK."

The other boy grinned back. "Glad to hear it."

"Am I going to hear all about this 'little talk' later?" Petey wanted to know.

"Maybe," Ronnie replied evasively, turning again and throwing a fist.

Big Julius chuckled. "Oh, Petey'll get it out of you, one way or another. Come on, y'all; let's go inside. Later, Sunshine."

"Yeah, see ya, bro."

They left Ronnie to his _tai chi_ and entered the building, coming across the usual group of Sunshine watchers in the stairwell. "He is so cute," one girl sighed.

"I'm _so_ glad to see he's starting to get better," her friend said. 

Petey rolled his eyes at his friends. "Aww, man! Can't y'all get it through your pretty little heads?" he asked, exasperated. "Y'all ain't got _no_ chance with Sunshine!"

"Why, because he's from _California_?" a sophomore asked, turning to him with an eyebrow raised.

The black boy looked over their shoulders and grinned. "No, baby sugar," he replied, pointing to where Ronnie stood talking to Tamsin. As they looked on, he took her books, then her hand, and started with her toward the school building. "Ol' Sunshine's already taken!"

****

Concluding Remarks: Well, they've sorted things out, but this story isn't over by a long shot! Unfortunately, I'm uploading faster than I can write (thanks to the great reviews!), so it'll be a little while before the next chapters will be up. I need time to write! Stay tuned, though — up next, Sunshine receives a phone call and Lewie Lastik comes to visit!


	10. Wintertime Love

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans and the Basses belong to themselves, the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears to their respective team owners, and fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ to Disney. I only own Tamsin, her uncle, mother and their friends. I also own Stuart Blakely, although I do not own Ohio State University; as well as Glensville, Ma Rose's and Landry's. "Wintertime Love" and "You're All I Need to Get By" are 1968 songs by the Doors and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, respectively. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," as mentioned in a previous chapter, belongs to the Shirelles.

****

Technical Notes: Again, being from the Philippines, I am not that familiar with the SATs. I'm assuming that by this time, most of the seniors (including Tamsin and Ronnie) have taken theirs. Thanks to the helpful souls on the Sugar Quill who tried to answer my questions about SAT schedules and such!

Ronnie's full name comes from [www.71originaltitans.com][1], while the information about running backs, fullbacks and tailbacks comes from a site with a URL too long for me to remember :D

Catherine "Cat" Davidson is a fictitious character. I'm thinking of writing her and Rev's story (set during the year TC Williams High School first opened) after I'm done with this one.

****

Author's Notes: Thank you, everyone, for all the lovely reviews!

__

Chapter Nine — Wintertime Love

__

"We're ho-ome!" Ronnie called as he and his father walked into the Basses' house that Thanksgiving afternoon. Each of them carried a bouquet of flowers, fresh from the florist.

"In the kitchen, dear," Mrs. Bass called back.

"Take these in to your mother," Col. Bass told his son, handing over the flowers he carried. "I'll go set the table."

"Yes, sir." Ronnie nodded and made his way into the kitchen where his mother, already wearing her dark blue "company" dress, was arranging coffee cups and saucers on a tray. "Hi, Mom."

"Hello, Ronnie." She kissed his cheek and _tsk_ed as he stole a couple of marshmallows from the open bag on the counter. "Don't take too many or you'll spoil your dinner."

He sniffed deeply of the cooking smells that pervaded the room. "No chance of that happening. Oh, and here are the flowers," he added, holding them out at arm's length.

"Put them in the vases on the table. I have to baste the turkey."

"Yes, ma'am." Ronnie removed the flowers from their green tissue paper wrappings and plopped a bouquet into each of the two vases on the kitchen table. 

Mrs. Bass turned back from the oven and looked them over critically. "They need a woman's touch."

He shrugged and stepped aside. He supposed he should have fixed the flowers up a bit, but they had looked just fine to him the moment he stuck them in the vases. Despite the "fruitcake" rumor, Ronnie definitely didn't know beans about flower arranging.

"Tamsin and her uncle are still joining us for dinner, right?" his mother asked as she took the flowers out of the vases and began to put them in again, stem by stem.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm glad. She's a very nice girl. Not that there was anything wrong with the other girls you've brought home before, you know, but…"

He smiled. "Yeah. Do you need help with anything?" 

"Not with the flowers, dear, but could you please put the nut bowls in the living room?"

"OK." Ronnie took the wooden bowls and put one on either end of the coffee table, filching a cashew or two before returning to the kitchen. He re-entered the kitchen just as the telephone began to ring. "I'll get it. Hello?" he said into the receiver.

"Hello." The caller was a man whose voice he didn't recognize. "Is this the Bass household?"

"Uh, yes…?"

"Am I speaking to Ronald Edwin Bass?"

He cringed at the mention of his full name. "Uh, yes…who is this?"

"Happy Thanksgiving, Ronald. This is Stuart Blakely. I represent Ohio State University. We'd like to talk to you about possibly playing football for us next year."

Ronnie's eyes widened. _A college recruiter! _ "Really?" he stammered. "Wow, that's — great!"

Mr. Blakely chuckled. "I'm glad you think so, son. We've heard great things about you and think a winning ability like yours is just what we need here at Ohio State."

He grinned proudly. _Wait 'til the guys hear this!_ "Well, thank you, sir!"

"My associates and I will be coming down to Virginia sometime in mid-December. Do you suppose your parents will be able to set aside some time for us?"

Mid-December! Maybe they'll be able to watch the regional championships and Ronnie would definitely be playing by then! "Yes, sir, I'm sure they will!"

"Good! Well, I suppose Thanksgiving is hardly the time to discuss things like this, so I'll give your parents a call sometime next week to set up a meeting. Can you tell them that?"

"I sure can, sir!"

"Thank you, Ronald. I'll see you soon, then. Goodbye."

"'Bye, Mr. Blakely! Happy Thanksgiving!"

"Who's Mr. Blakely?" Mrs. Bass asked, looking up from the flowers as her son hung up.

"He's a recruiter from Ohio State!" Ronnie replied, grinning. "They want me to play football for them! They're coming to see me play and talk to you and Dad in December! Isn't that great?"

"That's wonderful, Ronnie!" his mother said with a mile-wide smile. "You'd better go tell your father. I'm sure he'll just _bust_!"

Col. Bass didn't just "bust," he let out a loud "Yahoo!", picked up his son and whirled him around, then did the same thing to his wife for good measure. "And I bet that's only the first of many!"

"Come on, Dad," Ronnie said, still grinning, "let's just be happy that one school called."

"I am happy." His father grinned back and ruffled his hair fondly. "Whether you get only one offer or one hundred — even if you hadn't gotten any at all — your mother and I are proud of you." 

The doorbell rang shortly after that. Heedless of his bad knee, Ronnie walked quickly to answer it. Tamsin stood outside with Mr. Graham. She had just opened her mouth to say hello when he whooped and swept her up in an exuberant hug.

She squealed as her feet left the ground. "Ronnie, what the heck…?"

"I got a call from Ohio State just a minute ago!" he said. "They might give me a football scholarship!"

Tamsin looked just as happy and surprised as his mother had when he'd first broken the news. "That's wonderful!" She slipped her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. "Congratulations!"

He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose, which was pink from the cold outside. "Thanks."

Presently, Mrs. Bass came to the door to greet their guests. "Ronnie!" she scolded. "You don't leave guests standing around in the cold! I'm so sorry, Mr. Graham!" she said to Tamsin's uncle. "Please, come in!"

"That's quite all right, Mrs. Bass," Mr. Graham said good-naturedly as he entered. "The boy was just excited. Congratulations, Sunshine!"

"Thanks, Mr. Graham," Ronnie replied, finally putting Tamsin down.

Mr. Graham shook his hand then presented Mrs. Bass with the pie plate he was carrying. "This is for you and your family, ma'am. Thank you for inviting us to dinner."

"Oh, it was our pleasure," Ronnie's mother said with a pleased smile. "Ronnie, could you please help our guests with their coats and show them to the living room while I put this in the kitchen?"

"Yes, ma'am," Ronnie said. He took Mr. Graham's coat, then helped Tamsin with hers. "You look really nice," he complimented her as he put the coats away. She was wearing a deep yellow dress with long sleeves and a short skirt.

Tamsin blushed. "Thank you."

It was a good dinner. Everyone ate well and conversation ranged from Watergate to the Titans' chances of another perfect season. Tamsin insisted on helping Mrs. Bass with the cleanup and bringing coffee and dessert (including Mr. Graham's apple-cranberry pie) to the living room, where Ronnie, his father and Mr. Graham were watching the Detroit Lions play the Chicago Bears on TV.

Ronnie smiled at her as she sat down next to him with a piece of his mother's peach pie. Tamsin did love peaches. "You're just in time — the game's just begun."

"Great" was the unenthusiastic reply. She watched the game quietly for a while before a confused frown crept on her face.

"Something wrong?" Ronnie asked.

She pointed to the Bears, whose offense had taken the field. "I can tell where the quarterback is, but I have no idea which one is the fullback and which one is the tailback."

"There's no fullback or tailback in that formation."

"Why?" Tamsin wanted to know.

He chuckled. She could appreciate the romance behind football, but even with Sheryl Yoast beside her at every game, the basics still eluded her. "Well," he said, "in the offensive backfield you have two running backs behind the QB. When they're lined up side by side like they are there, that's called a T formation and neither of them is called a full- or tailback…"

She listened gravely, brow furrowed in concentration, as he explained how the running backs could be called by different names, depending on their places in the backfield. "OK," she said, nodding her satisfaction when he was done, "I think I've got it now. Thanks."

Ronnie traded grins with his father. Tamsin's wish to learn about the game was oddly touching. "No problem."

* * *

Tamsin called her mother in New York the next day to wish her a belated Happy Thanksgiving. "How was dinner at Ronnie's house?" Diana Lee wanted to know.

"Fine, Mom," Tamsin said. "The food was good. We ate and watched a football game — the usual Thanksgiving stuff. It was very nice. How about you? You didn't spend Thanksgiving alone, did you?"

"Relax, little one. Your Uncle Richard invited me. He has a new friend named Patrick, a chef. The food was _fantastic_."

She smiled. Besides Uncle Jon, Uncle Richard was one of her mother's oldest friends. He was an actor and used to recite Shakespeare to her when she was a little girl. "I'm glad."

"Anne, Tanya and Gerald were there, too," her mother went on, rattling off the names of her other artist friends. "They were all asking about you."

"Tell them I'm doing fine and that I say hi." She frowned when a cough came over the wire. It wasn't the quiet little cough people used to clear their throats, but the loud, hacking kind that came out of people who were sick. "Mom? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Just caught a little chill, that's all." 

"You're not dressing warmly enough again."

"I am, too. I'm just getting older. It's getting easier and easier for the cold to seep into my bones."

She laughed. "Stop talking about your old bones, Mother. If I know you, you'll stay young forever."

"You keep me young, sweetie," her mother replied affectionately. "Now, what's new with you? Do you have your SAT scores yet?"

"Not yet," she said as Ronnie walked into the house with Uncle Jon. Tamsin smiled at him and signaled that she wouldn't be much longer. He smiled back and gestured for her to take her time. "I'm pretty sure I did well, though."

"Of course you did. You get your smarts from me."

She chuckled. "Don't forget my supreme self-confidence."

"Well, no one ever made it big in this world by being a doormat." Her mother coughed again.

"You really ought to see a doctor about that, Mom."

"I'm going to. As a matter of fact, I've got an appointment this very Monday."

"Good." Tamsin caught Ronnie's eye and pointed to him, then to the phone. _Do you want to talk to her?_ She and Uncle Jon grinned when Ronnie shook his head wildly. "Uh, listen, Mom, I have to go. Ronnie's here." 

A melodramatic sigh came over the wire. "Abandoning your mother for a boy. Ah, well, it was bound to happen sometime. What are you planning to do?" she asked as Tamsin rolled her eyes.

"We're going to a movie with a couple of friends, maybe eat something afterward."

"Is he paying?"

She laughed. "Yes."

"All right, then. Be home by eleven."

"Uncle Jon lets me stay out until midnight when it isn't a school night."

"_He's_ not your mother, is he? Be glad I'm not saying ten o'clock, Tamsin. Everything closes at ten and whatever is left to do after that should _not_ be done."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, we are not doing what should not be done."

"I should hope so," Tamsin's mother huffed. "Now, if you have to run, put Jon on the line. I want to know what he knows about that boy you won't stop talking about."

She laughed. "Why don't you just ask me?"

"It won't be any fun asking _you_, sweetie. Put him on, will you please?"

"All right. Happy Thanksgiving, Mom. I love you." 

"Love you, too, sweetie. Have fun on your date."

* * *

That Saturday evening, a contingent of TC Williams supporters, including Tamsin and Mr. Graham, traveled to Glensville to watch the Titans play the Glensville High School Cougars in the last game of the regular season. "You sure you don't want us to save you a seat?" Tamsin asked Ronnie as her uncle dropped her off at the entrance to the football stadium, then drove away to find a parking space.

He smiled. "Yeah, I'm sure. All the players, even the injured ones, sit on the bench."

"I'll see you after the game, then." She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. "Good luck."

"But I'm not playing," Ronnie protested, turning red.

"That's for the whole team." She grinned and arched an eyebrow. "Unless you want me to—"

"Go sit down," he ordered. 

Tamsin laughed and made her way to the bleachers. Emma was standing, waving and calling her name from the front row. _"Tamsin!"_

"Not so loud!" she said as she walked down to join her friend. The blonde girl was seated with Sheryl Yoast, as usual. "I'm sure everyone knows my name by now!"

Emma laughed and moved aside so Tamsin could sit. "Sorry about that. Where's Mr. Graham?"

"Parking. He'll be along in a while." She caught sight of Rev sitting just behind them with his girlfriend, Catherine Davidson. "Hi, Rev. Hey, Cat."

"Hey, Tamsin," the black boy greeted her cheerfully, then gestured to the stocky, fair-haired boy seated on his other side. "Have you met Lewie Lastik? He was on the Titans' offensive line last year. Lewie, this is Tamsin Lee, Sunshine's girlfriend."

Tamsin blushed at the introduction, but Lewie greeted her with a friendly grin on his round face. "Hi, there, Tamsin. Pleased to meet you."

"Same here," she replied.

"Lewie goes to college in Tennessee," Rev went on. "He's visiting his family for Thanksgiving."

The introductions were interrupted when the people around them stood up to cheer. The Titans had taken the field. The TC Williams fans (most of them, anyway) sang along as the Titans did their warm-up. "What's Gerry doing out there?" Lewie asked when they had sat down again.

"Didn't anybody tell you?" Sheryl replied. "He's special assistant now, helpin' Coach handle defense."

"Well, I'm glad he's still involved with the team. Who's got my spot?"

"Eddie Lindros," Rev said, pointing to where Lewie's replacement stood with Blue and Alan.

"Oh, good. He's a good guy." Lewie grinned and waved as the Titans caught sight of him. "And why isn't Sunshine in uniform? Is he hurt?"

"Hurt his knee during the last game against Herndon."

The big boy winced. "Ouch."

"You really should stop making Ronnie run the ball," Tamsin told Sheryl. "I've seen him try it twice and it's never worked."

"It will someday," the little girl replied confidently.

"He ain't hurt _that_ bad, though," Rev assured his friend. "He'll be all right for the regional championships…if we make them, that is."

Tamsin and Sheryl rounded on him. _"Of course we'll make the regional championships!"_ they chorused indignantly.

The two girls looked at each other as their friends began to laugh. "Better watch out, Tamsin," Emma said with a grin, "you're turning into Sheryl."

* * *

The Titans won that night's game, 35-17, securing them a spot in the Northern Virginia Regional Championships for the second year running. Lewie joined his former teammates and their friends in a post-game celebration at Ma Rose's after everyone got back from Glensville.

"It is _cold_ out there!" Petey declared, stamping his feet loudly and blowing into his hands as he entered the warm, brightly-lit diner. "I wish it would just start snowing and get it over with!"

"Uh, not so fast, man," Big Julius said. "I don't want to be playin' in that kind of weather."

Ronnie led Tamsin and some of his friends to a booth near the jukebox when Emma suddenly grabbed Tamsin's hand. "Hey, Tamsin, sit here with me!"

"Hey!" Ronnie protested as the two girls got into the seat across from him.

"It's so you'll miss her," Emma teased. 

"She didn't say she'll miss _you_, though," Petey laughed as he and Blue crowded into the seat next to Ronnie. Gerry and Lewie took up the rest of their booth. "Will you miss him, sweetness?"

"I miss him already," Tamsin sighed, putting the back of her hand delicately against her forehead in a gesture as melodramatic as her tone of voice. Ronnie laughed. After spending a lot of time with Petey, Tamsin now knew that playing along was the only way to get him to drop it. 

Blue ordered two cheeseburgers with the works from his cousin Pearl, then leaned over to drop a coin into the jukebox. "Man, Lewie," he said, "am I glad you're here, even if just for a little while! Since you and Rev left the team, the only sounds we've got are Alan's and _his_ radio's stuck on Cornpone FM!" 

"I heard that!" Alan said from the booth across the aisle. 

"Come on, Blue," Rev chuckled, "I'm sure Alan's branched out since last year, thanks to you."

"No," the big black boy told him, "he has not! Well," he amended with a good-natured grin in the blond boy's direction, "just not much, anyway."

The jukebox began to play "You're All I Need to Get By" and Blue and Lewie began to sing along, with Lewie, as usual, doing the female vocals. "They used to do this all the time," Ronnie explained to Tamsin.

She smiled and nodded. "That's nice."

"So, Lewie, how's college treatin' you?" Gerry asked when everyone's orders arrived.

"It's fun," Lewie replied. "I've met all kinds of interesting people, and the guys on the football team are pretty cool, too — although they ain't as cool as you guys."

__

"Aaaawwww!" the Titans chorused. 

"I bet you get to go to some real great parties," Petey remarked enviously.

"Well, yeah, but it ain't just one long party, man. College is hard, too. The classes are really tough."

"But you're holdin' your own, ain't you?" Rev asked, smiling when Lewie nodded. "Good." 

"My…girlfriend's helping me," Lewie mumbled, turning red when his friends started to rib him.

"Oh, that's so sweet," Emma said, and the Titans began to clamor for Lewie to show them the mysterious girlfriend's picture.

"Hey, speakin' of sweet," Big Julius broke in, "what's this my mama heard from your mama about you makin' a deal with Ohio State to play ball for them, Sunshine?"

Ronnie blushed at the _whoa_s of mocking admiration coming from his teammates. "There is no deal," he said modestly. "They're just coming to have a look-see, that's all."

"_Then_ they'll make a deal." 

Tamsin smiled when Ronnie shrugged uneasily and said nothing. He apparently didn't want to talk about his football scholarship prospects when the others probably hadn't had offers yet, which she thought was sensitive of him. 

However, to their credit, the Titans didn't seem to begrudge him his good luck. "Hey, man, it's cool," Big Julius said with a good-natured grin. "We're real happy for you."

The blond boy finally smiled. "Thanks. They said they'll come in December," he said, "maybe in time to watch us _all_ in action at the regionals, right?"

"Right!" Petey said, looking excited. "So, you gonna take the offer?"

Ronnie shrugged again. "Don't know, bro. My dad says to look at the classes they've got, maybe see if any other school calls…"

"…see if they can offer you a cooler car…"

He made a wry face at his friend. "Aw, come on, man, I'm not going someplace because of the perks."

"Not even if Ohio State throws in a scholarship for Tamsin so y'all can stay together?"

"Oh, God." Tamsin groaned and waved away the teasing hoots coming from the others. "Leave me out of this."

"Just tossin' some ideas around, sweetness," Petey said innocently.

"That one sounds mighty tempting," Ronnie joked.

Tamsin raised her head. "You're not helping," she told him flatly, but it was hard not to smile when he was flashing that winning grin at her.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the Titans fell into telling "Momma" jokes, apparently something they had also once shared with Lewie. At least they weren't going to put her on the spot and ask her whether she would ever follow Ronnie to Ohio State. A scholarship would definitely be welcome in Tamsin's book, but given the choice, she'd prefer to go back to New York for college, maybe Boston at the farthest. She had a feeling it would be important to stay near her mother, which got her to wondering again just why she had ended up in Alexandria.

Just then, the jukebox began to play "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." Tamsin blushed when Ronnie caught her eye and winked. As of Friday night, that song didn't remind her so much of her mother anymore.

* * *

"Was it just me or was that girl in the bathroom copying everything I was doing?" Tamsin muttered to Liz as they walked to the TC Williams High School football stadium that Tuesday afternoon. Her breath misted in the frigid air.

They had just finished a literary magazine meeting and stopped by the girls' bathroom before going to wait until the Titans had finished practice for the day. While they were in there, a freshman had come in, gawked at Tamsin, and proceeded to play a game of monkey-see-monkey-do. She had fluffed out her hair after Tamsin had, tugged at her coat collar the way Tamsin did, and even spoke to her friend at the same time Tamsin had asked Liz if she was finished.

"I think she was copying you," Liz confirmed. "But what do you expect? People know you and Sunshine are a couple now. Maybe she was hoping you could pass on some secrets for success."

Tamsin laughed wryly. "Well, the only thing I did was follow every mother's advice and be myself. If I told her that, would she believe me?" 

"Probably not," the other girl replied as they arrived outside the stadium and sat down on the sidewalk. "But at least you've got her thinking she doesn't have to be like _Miranda_ to get a boyfriend."

They sat and talked for a while before the cold began to get to them. "I _wish_ they'd come out already," Liz grumbled. She was going home with her brother after the Titans finished practice, while Tamsin would be riding with Ronnie, who was practicing with the team for the first time since his injury. "I'm freezing."

Tamsin wrapped her coat more tightly around herself. Temperatures were had been dropping all week, but it had yet to snow in Alexandria. "And guys complain that girls take forever in the bathroom. At least we make them wait indoors where it's warm."

"Eddie's definitely getting a piece of my mind once he finally shows up."

"Are you sure you got a piece to spare?" said a cocky male voice. Tamsin and Liz looked up to see Ryan standing over them, looking toasty warm in a blue winter jacket.

"Of course I do," Liz retorted. "You, on the other hand…"

"Me, on the other hand…what?"

"Don't mess with me, Ryan. I'm pissed and I'm cold."

"Well, you shouldn't be sitting on the ground in this weather, anyway." He took Liz's hand and hauled her to her feet, then did the same with Tamsin. "Upsy-daisy."

"I don't suppose you can find it in your heart to tell me if my brother's anywhere near ready to leave?"

"You mean do I know whether he's still in the shower?" Ryan chuckled and tried to blow a mist ring into the air. "Man, I don't keep track of that kind of thing. What do you think I am, someone from California?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tamsin asked.

"Uh, nothing, Tamsin," the blond boy replied innocently. "Kind of an inside joke. Anyway, I think I saw both Eddie and Sunshine getting dressed when I left the locker room. That doesn't mean I like to watch guys get dressed and stuff, though," he warned. "I don't swing that way."

Liz laughed. "You're too much of a bullheaded male for me to even think such a thing of you."

"Thanks…I think."

Presently, Ronnie emerged from the building. He smiled when he saw Tamsin. "Hey, Tamsin. Have you been waiting long?"

"Uh…" She had certainly been waiting long _enough_, but didn't want to make an issue of it. "Maybe about fifteen minutes."

"Oops. Sorry." He took her books. "Shall we go?"

"OK," she said, then suddenly remembered Liz. "Will you…?"

"Oh, don't worry about Liz," Ryan told her. "I'll keep her company until Eddie comes out. What?" he demanded, when he received odd looks from all directions. "Can't a guy be nice once in a while?"

Ronnie grinned. "Don't worry, Liz, I'm sure Eddie will be out soon."

"And if he isn't," Tamsin added, "just imagine how warm you'll feel when your blood is boiling, thanks to Ryan."

She and Ronnie laughed at the face Liz made and said goodbye to their friends. "How was practice?" Tamsin asked as she and Ronnie walked to his car.

"Fine. Boone took it easy on me today, just to see how much my knee could take."

"Oh." She watched him open the passenger door for her. "Will you be able to drive?"

"Yeah. I didn't have a problem getting here this morning and I should stop favoring my leg, anyway." He smiled at her as he started the car. "Don't worry, I'll tell you if it starts to bother me."

* * *

The next day, Tamsin met her friends after school to begin Christmas shopping. "I hope you don't mind Tamsin ditchin' you for the girls, Sunshine," Corey Hunter's girlfriend teased when Ronnie accompanied Tamsin to the student parking lot after English.

Ronnie grinned at her. "No problem. We have a team meeting today, anyway." The regional championships were on Friday, and the Titans had a lot of preparing to do. 

"And he can't expect me to just sit around at home and wait for him to call, can he?" Tamsin broke in.

"I can't?" Ronnie joked, chuckling at the pugnacious looks that came over her and Liz Lindros' faces. "I'm just kidding. It's OK with me, really," he said, holding up his hands. "At least I get out of carrying the packages."

"But you don't get to find out what Tamsin's getting you for Christmas," Emma said.

"I'll tell you now," Tamsin said with an absolutely straight face. "Coal."

Ronnie laughed. "Then you've got to get going so you can buy my present. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course," she replied with a smile. They had an English paper to work on.

"OK, then." He nodded politely to the three other girls. "You girls have fun."

"It's good to see that he's cool with still letting you go around without him," Liz said approvingly when Ronnie had left and the girls piled into Robin's Corvette.

Tamsin laughed. "He'll let me if he knows what's good for him!"

They drove downtown and Robin parked on one end of the single street that made up Alexandria's shopping district. Aside from the supermarket, the only other major building in the area was Landry's, the local department store. Smaller shops were arrayed around them like a child's building blocks. Since it was early yet, both in the day and in the season, only a few shoppers were about. For Tamsin, it was a drastic change from the noise and bustling crowds along Fifth Avenue. 

There was a pretty good selection of things on sale. While her friends bought presents for their families, Tamsin got a thick, fluffy sweater for Uncle Jon — he wore them out really quickly for some reason — and sets of barrettes for her friends (while they weren't looking). However, she couldn't find anything for her mother or for Ronnie. 

"It's times like these that I miss New York," Tamsin said when they left Landry's. There had been a lot of things there that would have made acceptable gifts, but none of them appealed to her. She was very picky about the kind of presents she gave, especially if they were for people who meant a lot to her. "I don't miss the crowds, though," she added with a laugh.

"I thought you were going to buy that shirt for Sunshine," Emma said, swinging her department store bag as she walked.

"It occurred to me that he'll see Gerry wearing _his_ shirt and know that we got them together." She smiled at her friend. "Besides that, I don't know his size."

"Oh, finding out is easy," Robin said. "Next time you hug him, look at the label on his collar."

Tamsin laughed. "A shirt would be a very nice present, but I don't really want to get him one. I want to get him a personal gift, but not _that_ kind of personal. It's sort of…" She wrinkled her nose. "Well, it seems to me that the kind of girls who get guys shirts have known them for a real long time, like mothers or really steady girlfriends. I don't want to be presumptuous and act like I'm a really steady girlfriend—"

"Even if you are?" Emma asked slyly.

She blushed, but shrugged. "Look where that kind of behavior got Miranda."

"Well, you can't go wrong with a book," Liz said. "I get one for Corey every year — but then we're just friends."

"And what does Corey's girlfriend get him?" Tamsin asked Robin.

"Hello, ladies! May we be of any assistance?" a male voice called out before the other girl could answer. Crossing the street were Ronnie, Gerry, Eddie, Petey and Ryan.

"What are you doing here, Gerry?" Emma asked as her boyfriend wheeled up to them. 

"Why, our team meeting's over, sugar!" her boyfriend replied, wide-eyed. "Don't y'all know it's half past five?"

"Man, the things shopping does to women…!" Ryan said, shaking his head. 

"Shut up and be of assistance," Liz ordered, dumping her bags in his arms.

Ronnie chuckled and took Tamsin's single shopping bag. "Hey, Tamsin. Shopping all done?"

"There's nothing in there for you yet," she replied, "so don't bother peeking."

"Drat."

"How about me?" Petey asked. "Did y'all get _me_ somethin'? 'Cause, uh, you know…my birthday's comin' up."

"Subtle, Petey, _real_ subtle," Emma told him with a roll of her blue eyes, and Tamsin hid a smile. The red winter scarf they had all chipped in to buy him was hidden in one of Robin's shopping bags.

"So, Liz, are you going to do any more shopping?" Eddie asked as he took his sister's shopping bags from Ryan.

"Well, I've still got a few more presents to buy," she replied. "But it's getting dark and since _you're_ here to take me home," Liz went on with a sugary smile, "they can wait another day."

"Aw, y'all are goin' home _already_?" Petey whined. "Don't y'all wanna hang out first? Grab a bite somewhere?"

"Well, it is getting kind of close to dinnertime, man," Gerry said. "And you shouldn't be eatin' so much anyway. You've got to stay in shape — the regionals are coming up, remember?"

"He has a point, bro," Ronnie added with a grin. "Save it for your party."

The black boy pouted, but he was outnumbered, so the group broke up shortly after that. Eddie and Liz gave Petey a ride home, while Ryan rode with Robin ("My brother would kill me if I let her go driving around alone! I mean, what if she had a flat or something?"). 

Ronnie dropped Gerry and Emma off at their houses before driving Tamsin home.

She invited him to stay awhile once they got there. They made some cocoa and, instead of hanging around indoors or on the back porch, took it out to the small backyard, where they had spread a straw mat over the winter-brown grass. "Nice day," Tamsin said, squinting up into the cloudy sky. 

"_This_ is a nice day?" he asked, amused.

"Sure. Look at how everything's so still." She waved a hand at the trees lining the backyard fence. Their bare branches drew bold slashes against the rapidly dimming white of the sky. "It's like we're the only two people left in the world." 

"Oh." Ronnie grinned. "I can dig that."

"We're _not_ the only two people left in the world, though," she reminded him, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course not."

They drank slowly, talking of this and that. Ronnie put his arm around her when he had drained his mug. "You're right — this _is_ nice. Seeing movies and going bowling and stuff is fun, but there's something to be said about just being with each other, doing nothing."

"It's cheaper, for one thing," Tamsin joked.

"Hey," he replied with a smile, "when I'm with you, I get my money's worth every time. No prostitute humor intended," he added, blushing.

"None taken." She smiled back, then raised herself slightly for a kiss. 

"See, you can't do this with a bowling ball," Ronnie chuckled before kissing her. His arm tightened around her and he cupped her cheek with his free hand. Tamsin slipped her arms around his neck, tasting the chocolate on his lips.

He made a noise and drew her closer, heart pounding until she couldn't breathe. "I think that's enough," she whispered when she finally came up for air.

Ronnie smiled. "OK." He looked up. "Hey, wow."

Tamsin raised her head as he loosened his hold. It was snowing. Fat white flakes were raining down from the sky to spangle their hair and eyelashes. "That's a heck of a way to tell people to cool off."

He laughed and kissed her one last time before letting her go completely. "We should be getting back inside anyway. Mr. Graham will be home soon."

They gathered up the mugs, then rolled up the mat to return it to the porch. Ronnie smiled down at her as they entered the house. Tamsin thought she heard him say something before she walked into the kitchen. She wasn't absolutely sure, but she thought he said _I love you_.

   [1]: http://www.71originaltitans.com/



	11. Brother, Brother

****

Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Bruce Lee, Sonny & Cher, Ike & Tina, James Brown and Arthur Murray belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter comes from the 1971 song by Carole King (who absolutely ROX). The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City," the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Tommy James & the Shondells' "Crimson & Clover" all appear in my _Good Morning, Saigon_ CD. _Fists of Fury_ belongs to Bruce Lee's estate. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, their house, Tamsin's mother, the town of Drayton, Thaddeus McDonald High School and its football team, and assorted Titans and their friends. Oh, and Jim Frederick's nickname, "Footsteps," comes from _The Replacements_.

****

Introductory Remarks: Thanks to jess, Lioness, roxy and all the repeat reviewers for the encouragement; and very special thanks to Livia Liana, my football beta, for helping me beat the tar out of the game in this chapter. 

__

02-20-03: To avoid having Tamsin whack Ronnie in the face with her trusty umbrella, I had to change the movie they saw. Thanks again to Livia Liana for wanting to know more about "Georgia Peach" — it isn't a movie about Ty Cobb like I thought; rather, it seems to be an adult film! Moral lesson of the story — research thoroughly, kids!

__

Chapter Ten — Brother, Brother

__

Where to begin?

Tamsin drummed her pencil on her notebook, stopping only when the soft _tap-tap-tap_ began to pound in her temples. Instead of working on her next submission to the literary magazine, she had been staring at a blank page for over an hour.

She winced as a shrill blast from Coach Boone's whistle rang in her ears. Hanging around the Titans' practice was not helping. She wasn't looking for the kind of inspiration brought on by big, sweaty, grunting boys in tight pants. How did she end up freezing her rear off in the TC Williams football field instead of working in the nice, warm library, anyway?

__

"ALL RIGHT!" Coach Boone bellowed, clapping his hands. Tamsin could hear him quite clearly from her perch in the bleachers. "Good practice, everyone — Sunshine, that was some pass, boy!"

"What d'you expect?" Petey said loudly as the rest of the Titans applauded. She was able to hear him pretty well, too. "He's _inspired_!"

Tamsin arched an eyebrow at the football team as teasing cries of "Woohoo!" and "Taaaamsin!" drifted up to her. Her mouth twisted wryly and she blew a few kisses just to satisfy the onlookers before turning back to her blank page. "At least one of us is inspired," she murmured to herself.

Where was _her_ inspiration? she wondered as the Titans trooped to the showers. Weren't people supposed to have the ideas coming out of their ears when they were in love?

After he was done with practice, she and Ronnie were going to see _Fists of Fury_. That was all Tamsin could think about. Maybe the anticipation was crowding out ideas. 

Was she going to lose all her drive to write if they kept dating? She shuddered, then mentally shook herself. _Don't be ridiculous._

"Hey, Tamsin."

__

Speaking of the devil. Tamsin smiled up at Ronnie, who'd just walked up to her, fresh from a post-practice shower. He was wearing a blue-gray sweater that matched his eyes. "Hi."

"Ready to go?"

"Almost," she replied, looking ruefully down at the blank paper before her. Tamsin wished she would have at least started something by the time they were to leave, but she had been too busy thinking about the upcoming date to do anything productive. And she was supposed to hand it in tomorrow! For a while, she was tempted to cancel so she could work.

__

Sorry, Ronnie, I can't go out with you. You're giving me writer's block.

She laughed as the sentences took root in her head. What a time to get an idea! "Just a minute," she said, beginning to write furiously. "I have to get something down."

"No problem," Ronnie said easily. 

He watched her scrawl notes to herself, frowning slightly like she always did when she was hard at work. Tamsin looked up for a while to shoot him a small smile. "Don't worry, this won't take long." 

"Like I said, no problem."

She scanned over what she had written, then smacked her pencil down. "OK, I'm done. Let's go."

"You sure?" he joked even as she began gathering her things together. He had once made the mistake of hurrying her through her writing, and she had been unable to concentrate on the date — or on him — all night. 

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Yes, I'm sure."

"All right then." Ronnie smiled at her and took her things, then her hand. "Come on."

They saw _Fists of Fury_ as planned and he teased her about her possible kinship with Bruce Lee on the drive back to 125 Gartner Street. The Christmas lights strung along the eaves of the roof, up the posts and through the porch railings made it hard to miss the house. "Uncle Jon went a bit overboard," Tamsin noted sheepishly. 

Ronnie laughed. "Guess he doesn't have much to decorate back in New York."

Mr. Graham was on the telephone when Ronnie and Tamsin entered the kitchen, stamping snow off their feet. He grinned when he saw them. "OK, Diana, you don't have to lose sleep tonight. Tam is home, safe and sound. I told you they wouldn't be out late — it _is_ a school night, after all, and they're good kids."

Tamsin laughed and turned to Ronnie. "Would you like to stay for dinner?" 

"No, thanks," he replied. "My mom will wait for me."

"Are you sure? All you have to do is eat," she cajoled. "It was Uncle Jon's turn to cook tonight."

Ronnie chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure. Some other time, alright?" He leaned over and kissed her quickly. "I'll see you in school tomorrow."

"He's leaving already," Mr. Graham reported to Tamsin's mother over the phone. "He just gave her a goodnight kiss. It was all very chaste, Diana; I _told_ you they're good kids…"

"I think I'd better go," Ronnie mumbled, his face red.

"Yes, you should," Tamsin agreed, looking similarly embarrassed.

It took some doing, but Ronnie managed to look her uncle in the eye. "'Bye, Mr. Graham. See you in class tomorrow."

Mr. Graham grinned and held up his free hand. "Wait a minute, Sunshine. I'll walk you to your car—oh, Tam's mom says good night."

He smiled self-consciously. "Well, uh, good night to her, too."

"He says good night, too," Mr. Graham laughed into the receiver as Ronnie gave Tamsin one final nod, then turned to leave. "Hey, Tam, your mom wants to speak with you. I'll just go walk Sunshine to his car. We can't have him slipping and hurting himself — Coach Boone will kill me!"

Ronnie smiled as he and his teacher came out into the still winter evening. The eagerness in Tamsin's voice as she spoke to her mother carried all the way to the sidewalk.

* * *

On Friday, December 8th, the Titans were excused from their afternoon classes to travel to Drayton and defend their regional championship against the Thaddeus MacDonald High School Warriors. "They're a real tough team," Eddie noted on the bus ride to Drayton. "Would have made regionals last year, too, if they hadn't forfeited because of that flu epidemic."

"Hey, Sunshine; how's the leg?" Gerry asked quietly.

"Just fine, bro," Ronnie assured him. Despite his insistence that he was back at a hundred percent, and Boone's instructions not to be easy on him, everyone had been concerned about his condition leading up to the regionals. For a while there, Ronnie had been afraid that his own father was going to start carrying him around the house to avoid putting undue strain on the no-longer-injured leg. "I'm ready to start tonight."

"Still, you've got to be careful, man. You saw the game films — MacDonald has a guard who probably bites the heads off chickens in his spare time."

"It'll be cool, Gerry. I won't let him get near me." He grinned. "Besides, the offensive line is so scared I'll get killed that they shut down the defense in practice."

"We let them get away with it because _we_ don't want you to get killed either," Gerry said defensively.

Ronnie chuckled. "Well, thanks."

Like the rest of the teams the Titans had faced during the past two seasons, MacDonald High was not yet integrated. The generous donation from one of Drayton's founding families that funded the school's brand-new, ultra-modern indoor football stadium had seen to that.

"At least they entertain guests in style," Blue observed as the Titans filed into the visitors' locker room, which boasted thickly padded benches and big, roomy lockers, "no matter what color they are."

"They'll probably fumigate first thing tomorrow morning," Big Julius said dryly.

"That won't stop me from enjoying their hospitality," the other boy replied, examining the whirlpool tub with great interest.

The mood was subdued as the Titans suited up. The stakes were now much higher, as this was a do-or-die playoff game; and despite the many game films they watched, the Titans still weren't sure how they would fare against the Warriors.

"Is Tamsin coming to the game?" Ryan asked Ronnie in the middle of strapping on his equipment.

"No." The other boy's blond hair fell in his face as he tugged on his cleats, putting the left one on first like he always did. "She wouldn't make the game in time even if she left right after school was let out."

"Couldn't she have ditched school to come with us?"

Ronnie forced a smile even though he definitely wasn't happy that Tamsin couldn't be at the game. "If she did, I wouldn't have anyone to borrow notes from."

Everyone had finished dressing when the coaches entered the locker room. "You're all on your feet," Coach Boone observed with a nod of approval. "I like that. To me, it means that we're ready for whatever is comin' our way tonight.

"And I know that y'all are ready to face MacDonald tonight," Boone went on. "We've spent the past week studying the Warriors' moves, matching their strengths and weaknesses against ours. The Titans are prepared for the Warriors, physically and mentally. 

"But I think tonight is going to be won by heart. We have the strength and the skills, for sure; but in all our key games, it's been the team's _heart_ that made all the difference between winnin' and losin'." The coach gestured toward Gerry, sitting on one side in his wheelchair. "Last year, it was Bertier who gave us our heart. We won for him. Tonight, I want you to win for Petey Jones."

Ronnie heard a small gasp from Petey, who was standing beside him.

A small smile played around the corners of Boone's mouth. "I may have found fault with his technique sometimes, but I have never doubted his heart. I hope all of you have learned about heart from him."

There was a short silence, and then Alan spoke. "For Petey," he said, smiling.

Big Julius looked at Gerry, then at Petey, and nodded decisively. "For Petey."

__

"For Petey!" Ronnie repeated along with the rest of the Titans, clapping his hands and grinning at his friend. For his part, Petey stood silently among his teammates, face red and eyes bright at the unexpected compliment from the exacting Coach Boone.

The Titans' coaches watched their boys jostle Petey's and each other's shoulder pads, pumped up for the game. "Good work inspiring the boys, Herman," Coach Yoast said quietly. "And good work putting pressure on my linebacker."

"Aw, he'll cope with it," Boone murmured back. "He's got heart, remember?"

* * *

It was a nail-biter from the opening kickoff. MacDonald intercepted a Titans pass and scored an authoritative touchdown early in the first quarter, but the Titans defense tied the score shortly after. "All right! Way to go, Julius!" Gerry cried, slapping his friend's hand as the Warriors called a timeout. 

"Good work, defense!" Boone called, clapping his hands, while Yoast stood beside him, beaming proudly. "Offense, you're up next! Now, MacDonald drew first blood out there, but we came right back and cut them. What's important now is that _they're_ the ones who keep bleeding! I want sticky hands out there — sticky hands!"

Boone got his sticky hands, all right. The ball rarely left the Titans' possession and, although the score remained tied, they slowly worked their way toward the Warriors' end zone.

"Ten yards," Ronnie said in the huddle sometime during the second quarter, "that's all we need to take the lead. Alan, we're going with you. We'll clear the way, but you'd better be prepared to jump right over someone's head if you need to." 

Alan nodded. "You got it, Sunshine."

He grinned back. Besides Petey, Alan could teach them all a thing or two about heart as well. "All right, then. Let's go."

The small crowd of TC Williams supporters cheered as the Titans offense took the field. Ronnie took one look at his parents in the very front row, tamped down the disappointment that Tamsin couldn't be there, and squatted down behind the offensive line. _"READY! GREEN 16! GREEN 16! Hut-hut!"_

He took the snap and pitched the ball to Alan, who charged into the mass of Titans and Warriors. Moments later, Ronnie heard the whistle blow. He raised his arms, ready to celebrate, but the cheer died on his lips when he saw the Warriors celebrating and Alan slumped dejectedly on the ground. "What's going on?" he asked, jogging up to Eddie, who was standing on the fringes of the growing knot of people in the end zone. "Is Alan OK?"

Eddie's face was uncharacteristically tight as Boone ran over and began arguing with the referee. "The ref's saying he fumbled, but one of those jerks _pushed_ him!"

Ronnie's heart sank when the Titans' head coach turned away, bellowing for a time out with a thunderous expression on his face. Not only did the call rob the Titans of a touchdown, but it also gave the Warriors possession of the ball.

Alan was obviously kicking himself when he walked by with Blue. "It's OK, man," the big black boy was saying. "You're didn't do anything wrong — look at how Boone was fighting with the ref!"

"That doesn't win us any points," the wiry blond boy replied.

"Not now, anyway." Ronnie fell into step with his teammates and pounded Alan's shoulder. "Don't lose heart, bro. We'll get it back."

But the bad call had dealt a serious blow to the Titans' morale. They were unable to regain possession for the rest of the quarter and trailed the Warriors by 14 points going into second half.

The Warriors weren't above rubbing the lead into their opponents' faces. They also weren't above taking the occasional cheap shot. There were insults against the black Titans and their mothers drawled across the line of scrimmage, surreptitious kicks and elbows, and one charming fellow on the Warriors defensive line even liked to spit on whoever was carrying the ball. (He got his own teammates a couple of times.) The one and only time the Titans tried to retaliate, Blue was given a ten-yard penalty for holding.

Boone erupted, and even Yoast was indignant. "He barely even touched him!" the normally serene defensive line coach roared from the sidelines.

"Man, this is like last year's regionals all over again," Ronnie murmured.

"Coach got pissed last year, too," Gerry reminded him as they watched Yoast snarl last-minute instructions to the Titans defense, "and we all know how that game turned out."

Indeed, just like last year, the talking-to from Yoast seemed to have lit a fire under the defense's feet, and they took the field with fresh determination.

"Hey, shut up, white trash!" one of the Warrior linemen snapped at Ryan, who had been whistling a little tune when he took his place on the field. "You're on _our_ side of the tracks now!"

"First it's 'nigger,' now it's 'white trash,'" the blond boy observed coolly. "There's just no pleasing you, is there?"

"The only thing that's gonna please me is beating your sorry Titan asses into the ground."

"Well, then, let this be your first lesson in deferred gratification," Ryan said as the Warriors snapped the ball. He drove a shoulder into his opponent's midsection, taking him down. "Look it up if you don't know what it means."

After flattening the lineman with the big mouth, Ryan went for the quarterback, coming within a hair of sacking him. The Warrior QB fired a long bomb, and everyone watched as the ball sailed in a high arc toward one of his receivers.

Petey, however, had plans for that football. He picked off the pass before it could spiral into the opposing player's hands and ran 65 yards uninterrupted for a touchdown.

The Titans' bench went wild as the referee's whistle blew. _"All right!"_ Gerry cried ecstatically, slapping hands with everyone within his immediate vicinity. _"We ain't dead yet!"_

"Great job, Petey!" Ronnie complimented his friend when the triumphant defense trooped off the field.

The black boy grinned at him. "Well, since y'all weren't winnin' the game for me, I figured I ought to win it myself."

"Hey, bro, we've still got a quarter to go. We'll win it for you yet."

* * *

If Yoast's little speech inspired the defense, it was the touchdown resulting from it that galvanized the offense. "Offense, are you gonna let the defense be more productive than you?" Boone demanded as the Titans clustered around him before the start of the fourth quarter.

__

"No way!" the offense thundered while Yoast and the defense looked on, grinning. Like the coaches, the players got on well with each other, but they couldn't help having a friendly offense-defense rivalry during game time.

Ronnie led his teammates onto the field, all of them determined not to let the defense — whether the Warriors' or the Titans' — get a leg up on them. _"Green 49!"_ Ronnie called, ignoring the heckling coming from the other side of the scrimmage line. _"Green 49! Hut-hut!"_

Alan brushed by Ronnie after the snap. To the Warriors, it looked as if he had the ball. It was therefore a nasty surprise when the football was found under Jim's arm, and the speedy halfback was plunging down the middle, toward the end zone.

The Titans and their small crowd of fans roared their approval as he danced around two defenders to score a touchdown. _"Way to go, Footsteps!"_ Blue cheered, giving Jim the nickname that would follow him all the way to the pros.

The almost back-to-back touchdowns apparently rattled the MacDonald High Warriors, forcing them to turn the ball over to the Titans more often than they would have liked. They suffered a failed field goal attempt and the score remained tied at 21 for the rest of regulation time. 

"I want you all in the end zone," Boone instructed the Titans offense as the game went into overtime. "Sunshine is going to throw to one of you and I want you there to catch the ball." 

The Titans' head coach took Ronnie aside as the offensive line ran onto the field. "Run for your life."

Ronnie gulped. He wasn't superstitious, but he had damaged his knee the last time he had run the ball himself. (Not to mention the first attempt during the season had gotten him tackled.) To have to do it again, and in a high-stakes game such as this, made him nervous. "Yes, sir."

The noise in the stadium faded away to a dull roar when he joined his teammates. _This is it._ _"READY!"_ Ronnie called when he was in place behind the offensive line. _"Green 49! Green 49! Hut-hut!"_

The ball was snapped and Alan and Jim ran by him, thinking that they were going to run the previous pass action play again. He didn't pass to either of them, but the Warriors didn't find that out until after Ronnie himself was well on his way to the end zone. 

It seemed awfully far away, even with him pouring all his energy into keeping his legs moving; and there seemed to be a lot of unfriendly people standing between him and a touchdown. Ronnie was dimly aware of someone yelling that the QB had the ball.

He prayed for sticky hands and leaped for the goal line as Warriors closed in on him from all directions. After a whirlwind of grunts and thuds, he again found himself at the bottom of a pileup. 

Ronnie breathed in the smell of sweat and dirt and checked himself over as one by one, players were pulled off him. Mercifully, there was no unusual pain except for the football digging into his chest. _Where's the goal line?_

"Where's the ball?" he heard Blue asking as the last Warrior got off him. They found it in Ronnie's arms, resting a scant half-inch past the goal line.

The referee had just barely raised his arms when a tide of red jerseys stormed the end zone. "You all right, Sunshine?" Petey asked as Ronnie was dragged to his feet.

The blond boy grinned at the celebration going on around them. "I feel great." He clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Happy birthday, man."

* * *

Petey turned eighteen on the day that the Titans won the Northern Virginia Regional Championship for him. That Saturday, he threw a birthday-slash-victory party at his house.

"Summer in the City" was playing in Ronnie's car as he and Tamsin drove to the Joneses'. It was a crisp, cold afternoon and she was laughing at his attempts to sing along. "Ronnie, it's the dead of winter."

"Well, thinking about summer makes me feel warmer," he replied with a grin. 

Tamsin chuckled. He hadn't stopped smiling since getting back from Drayton with the regional championship game ball. "That makes sense."

They were both singing along (badly) to "California Dreamin'" when they arrived. "So much for becoming the next Sonny & Cher," Ronnie joked as he rang the Joneses' doorbell.

The birthday boy himself answered the door only moments later. "Hey, y'all!" he crowed. "Come in!"

"Hey, man," Ronnie greeted his friend after they were yanked inside and divested of their coats. "Happy birthday again."

"Thanks, Sunshine," Petey replied, slapping the blond boy a low five, then turned to Tamsin. "Hey, there, Miss Tamsin."

She smiled. "Hi, Petey. Happy birthday, and congratulations on the great game. I'm still kicking myself for not being there to see it." She and her friends had watched it on TV at Emma's house, and Ronnie's parents were only too happy to lend Tamsin the home movie they had made of the game; but there was always something different actually being there to cheer on the team.

"You should!" he said, grinning and picking her up in a bear hug. "Just kidding, sweetness. Now, come on!" he urged as he put her down again. "Everyone's in the basement!"

The main floor of the house was filled with relatives, whom Mr. and Mrs. Jones had invited over to help celebrate. Petey's friends were down in the basement, where they could pretend that the adults weren't there. Several Titans were raiding the table laden with party food when they entered.

"Took y'all long enough," Big Julius said by way of a greeting.

"Someone was too busy singing to notice that he had made a wrong turn," Tamsin replied.

"I was not!" Ronnie said hotly as the others laughed.

"I didn't know you sang, Sunshine," Blue observed in surprise.

The blond boy grinned. "I do it only around people who sing as badly as I do."

Tamsin stuck out her tongue at him. "I'll sing to you again if you don't behave."

Gerry laughed. "Maybe if you had a duet, we'd have a snow day on Monday…hey, Alan," he greeted the wiry blond boy as he entered the basement with Lisa on his arm.

"Hey," Alan said, trading low fives with his friends. "Y'all know Lisa McAllister, don't you? Lisa, I'm sure you know the guys…and Tamsin Lee…" A look of uncertainty crossed his face when he remembered that the two girls sort of had a history.

"Yes, I do," the brown-haired girl said, smiling. "Hi, guys. Hi, Tamsin," she added cordially.

"Hi, Lisa," Tamsin replied with a civil smile of her own.

"Um, have you seen Emma around?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I just got here myself."

"Oh, she's right over there," Gerry said, pointing to a couch in one corner of the room, where his girlfriend sat with Robin and the Hunter twins.

"Thanks. I think I'll go over and say hi. Would you please excuse me?" Lisa touched Alan's arm. "See you later."

"Uh, Tamsin, I hope you don't mind that I brought her here," Alan said quietly after the other girl had gone. "I forgot that you had some problems with—"

"Hey, it's OK," she assured him. "If you like being with her, that's all that matters. It's not like we hate each other so much that we'll have a catfight the minute you put us in the same room together." 

"I'd love to see that, though," Blue remarked, and Ronnie promptly slugged his shoulder.

Tamsin ignored that and smiled at Alan. "It was nice of you to think of me, though…however belatedly."

* * *

Since it was a team celebration, the Titans' coaches naturally dropped by to take part in the festivities. Ronnie found himself sitting up a little straighter as Boone and Yoast moved around the room, exchanging pleasantries with their students.

Tamsin felt the tension in his body and laughed. "Ronnie, this is a party," she told him. "Relax! They won't bench you for slouching."

"You'll never know with those two," Blue said.

"Sorry. We just can't help it." Ronnie relaxed a bit and smiled as Tamsin settled against his side again. It amazed him how well they fit together. When seated, her shoulder fit perfectly into the cup under his arm, and her head was just high enough to tuck under his chin. It felt nice to be able to hold her like this, even if other people would probably just shrug it off as a matter of relative size.

He tensed again and she nudged him as Yoast approached their group. "Well, hi, there, boys," the coach said with a smile. "And girls," he added, nodding toward Tamsin and Big Julius' Sharon.

"Good evening, sir," Tamsin replied politely.

"Is your uncle here, Miss Lee?"

She shook her head, her hair swishing like silk over Ronnie's hand. "Ronnie gave me a ride here."

"Oh, please!" Blue exclaimed, exasperated. "Girl, why don't you say that the two of you are here together? It's the truth, anyway!"

Tamsin shot the big black boy a dirty look as Yoast chuckled. Big Julius quickly changed the subject. "Did you bring Sheryl, Coach?"

"She and Nikki are right upstairs playin' with some of Petey's little cousins. I should be goin' up there in a while to see that she hasn't made any of them cry yet." The coach surveyed them all with a paternal smile. "So, final exams are comin' up. I hope y'all are getting ready for them…?" 

Ronnie and the Titans all nodded. Their coaches insisted on maintaining high standards even in academics, and TC Williams High School expected its athletes to work hard just like everyone else.

"Hey, man," Blue told Big Julius, "you can still help me with Social Studies, right?"

"Oh, Tamsin, Emma's calling us," Sharon said as her boyfriend agreed to meet Blue in the library after school on Monday. The black girl pointed over to where Emma stood next to the record player. "Looks like she finally chased Alan away."

"Thank God," Blue breathed.

Tamsin laughed. "Would you excuse us?" she asked Yoast and the boys.

"Of course," the coach replied courteously.

"It was nice seeing you, sir." She smiled at Ronnie and patted his knee as she got up. "See you later."

Gerry and Boone later joined Ronnie and his friends. They all chatted for a while before Boone and Yoast moved on to trade jokes with Jim, Ryan and Eddie, all of whom stood up straighter at the coaches' approach. "Hey," Big Julius chuckled, jerking his thumb in the direction of the dance floor. "Look over there."

Emma, Tamsin and Rev's girlfriend Cat were dancing to Ike & Tina with Petey's young cousins, who had probably sneaked in from upstairs. "Oh, no, here come Rev and Ryan!" Blue cried as the two boys joined them. "And there goes Alan! Man, I've known him for a year and a half now and he _still_ dances like a grasshopper havin' a seizure!"

"Come on, Blue, he ain't _that_ bad," Gerry laughed. "He's havin' a good time and that's what matters."

Tamsin looked like she was having a good time, too, Ronnie thought as he watched her bump hips with one of Petey's cousins, who was just about as tall as she. She was flushed and laughing, the way she had been after dancing with his friends at Homecoming. He wondered if she would look the same way for him.

Before he knew it, he was on his feet and walking toward her. "Is this Sunshine I see before me?" Ryan teased as Ronnie joined them. Gerry and Blue were cheering him on from the sidelines.

"Someone take a picture!" Alan hollered, making Lisa laugh. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment!"

Ronnie made a face at his friends. Unlike the other boys, he wasn't that fond of dancing. This was probably the first time ever that the Titans were going to see him on a dance floor. "Shut up."

It wasn't as bad as he feared. He definitely didn't know how to do the James Brown-style shuffling that Rev was doing, but he managed to keep up with the rhythm. The trick was to look like you knew what you were doing; and if you didn't, make it look like you messed up on purpose. Ryan had them all in stitches with the crazy dance moves he kept trying out.

Ronnie faked his way through a couple of fast songs before the lights grew dim and someone put on "Crimson & Clover." Petey's cousins ran upstairs giggling as people began to pair off. 

He turned to Tamsin and held out his arms. She smiled shyly and stepped into them. "You looked real good back there," he told her as he drew her close. Tamsin was warm from dancing and her perfume hung in a sweet, heavy cloud around them.

"You weren't bad yourself," she replied, smiling up at him.

Ronnie chuckled. "Well, thank you."

Slow dancing was easy. You didn't have to follow a set of steps like Arthur Murray did; in fact, you barely had to move at all. All you had to do was sway around a bit, face another direction every so often, and drag the girl around with you. (And watch where you put your feet.)

He stepped away, somewhat dismayed, when Tamsin withdrew her arms from around his shoulders. "Hey, come back here," she said as she put them around his waist instead and laid her head back on his shoulder. "Sorry. In case you haven't noticed, you're kind of tall. The blood was draining out of my arms."

"Now that's excellent dance-floor conversation," he laughed. 

"I just want to make our first dance together memorable."

Ronnie laid his cheek on hers. "You don't have to say anything to make it memorable. And now that I know that you like dancing and there isn't much to it, I might do it a bit more often."

She chuckled. "I might not be worth it. Like I said before, I'm too tense to be graceful."

Ronnie grinned, remembering the day she had told him that. "And like _I_ said before, there's nothing wrong with the way you move."

****

Concluding Remarks: Now I _really_ need to get back to writing! I'm afraid it's going to be a while, but coming next, we're going to have some Christmas fluff and the state championship game!


	12. Sweet Seasons

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves. The fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter comes again from the ROXn Carole King. I do not own that, nor do I own any of the book or song titles mentioned in this chapter. I also do not own Vanderbilt University. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, their house, and miscellaneous Titans and TC Williams students.

**Technical Notes:** I haven't forgotten that Ronnie got a call from Ohio State in Part 10 of this story. I just wanted to show that other colleges were interested in recruiting him, too.

Big Julius' locker room speech is taken from Shakespeare's _Henry V_. I first heard in the Danny DeVito army comedy _Renaissance Man. If you read the play, you'll understand why it's so popular with military-themed movies. _

**Author's Notes: **Special thanks as always to Livia Liana for her invaluable help with the football scene. Thank you for being so patient with my numerous technical errors! Thank you also for the review, and to Rhia and iceeblue for their own feedback. 

Well, I guess you've waited long enough…here's the latest complete chapter. The next one is still being written — I swear I'm uploading too fast for my own good! Enjoy!

Chapter Eleven — Sweet Seasons 

The next week was a whirlwind of last-minute projects and assignments as students rushed to fulfill all their requirements before the start of final exams. "And just when you thought the worst was over," Ronnie said as he and Tamsin took a break from studying to wrap Christmas presents one afternoon during finals week, "you have the finals themselves."

Tamsin laughed as she folded brightly-colored wrapping paper around Ronnie's present for his mother. "I heard that."

"I don't know why everything has to happen all at the same time. All this last-minute stuff to do, all those tests, crammed into a couple of weeks; and on top of that the recruiters pick this time of year to come around…I feel like I'm being pulled in a million different directions."

She rubbed his arm sympathetically. "We all do."

The arm she was rubbing wrapped around her and drew her close. "Sorry. I shouldn't be complaining about people trying to get me to go to their colleges when you have it the other way around."

Tamsin smiled to let him know she wasn't offended. At the risk of sounding smug, she was fairly sure that, come June, she wouldn't be hurting for a college acceptance letter. (Tuition, however, was another story.) "You're just tired. How was your dinner with that other school…Vanderbilt?" 

"Fine. Some of the majors sound interesting." Ronnie's expression brightened. "The scout said he was going to see some of the other guys, too, while he was here. Isn't that great?"

"It sure is," she agreed sincerely. Ronnie was acutely conscious of the fact that his teammates might not be getting the same opportunities as he and was thus leery of talking about college with them, even if he really wanted to. The recruiters' showing interest in some of the others made things a little less awkward. 

He smiled down at her as they went back to wrapping. "Hey, that's really cool."

Tamsin looked down at the stained-glass lantern she was going to wrap next. "Thanks."

"For your mom?"

"Mm-hmm." Diana Lee collected unique candles and candleholders, which she liked to use on special occasions. Tamsin had unearthed this particular one in a small antique store in downtown Alexandria. When a lighted candle was placed inside it, the little wrought-iron lantern exploded into a million eyes of jewel-bright colors. She had known instinctively that it was the perfect present for her mother.

"She'll flip when she gets that."

She smiled. "I hope so."

"Are you going back to New York for Christmas or is she coming to visit you here?" Ronnie asked, making a precise corner in the paper that would conceal the book he had gotten for his father.

Tamsin's shoulders sagged dejectedly as she stuffed the little lantern with crumpled-up newspaper. She and Uncle Jon were mailing her mother's presents to New York tomorrow. The packages from her mother were already under the tree, still in their stamped brown-paper wrapping.

"Neither." She dredged up a brave smile. "But don't worry. I'm sure you'll meet her someday."

* * *

The end of the semester had been tough on all of them, but it looked like it had been toughest on Tamsin, Ronnie thought as he went up the front walk to her house that Sunday morning. She had tried to hide her feelings by joking about it, but he knew that being so far away from her mother during the holidays was making her feel real down.

Which was why he was there.

Ronnie stepped up to the front door and rang the doorbell. He brushed the slight sprinkling of snowflakes off the slender box he carried while he waited to be let inside.

Mr. Graham opened the door after a few moments' wait. He was still in pajamas and his glasses were smudged, but his smile was bright as always, a sure sign that he had already had his morning coffee. (Mrs. Bass didn't even so much as open her eyes until she had her first cup.) "Sunshine!" he exclaimed. "Good morning!"

"Hi, Mr. Graham," the blond boy replied.

"It's Jon, remember? Come in, come in!" After ushering Ronnie inside, Mr. Graham looked to see if anyone was with him. "Uh, we did agree that you and your folks were coming to _Christmas Day dinner, right?" he asked._

Ronnie chuckled. It was the morning of the 24th. "That's right, sir. I just…I just wanted to see Tamsin before tomorrow. I hope you don't mind. Is she up?"

Mr. Graham grinned. "Yes, she is. Hang on and I'll get her. Why don't you sit down or something?"

"It's OK, I'll wait here. I won't be staying long."

"Whatever floats your boat."

He watched his teacher walk down the hallway toward the kitchen, heard Mr. Graham say something and Tamsin squawk in reply. Moments later she was being hustled down the hallway by her grinning uncle. "But I'm not dressed properly!"

"Well, we can't keep him waiting, can we?" Mr. Graham chortled. "Here she is, Sunshine!"

Ronnie smiled as Tamsin was pushed toward him. Like her uncle, she was wearing rumpled flannel pajamas. "Hey, Tamsin."

"Hi, Ronnie," she mumbled, glaring mutinously at Mr. Graham as he practically skipped away. Her hair was uncombed and her face red with embarrassment under the smudge of what looked like strawberry jam near one corner of her mouth. "Sorry I look like this."

"Don't worry about it." He chuckled and reached over to tuck one of many stray locks of hair behind her ear. Instead of jasmine, she smelled like warm bread and vanilla. "I think you look cute."

Her blush deepened. "I'm very lucky that you think so. What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Oh, I, uh…" Ronnie cleared his throat and glanced down at the box in his hand. "I just wanted to give you this," he said as he held it out to her. "Merry Christmas."

Tamsin looked at it hesitantly. "But it's not Christmas yet."

He shrugged and smiled. "I wanted to give it to you today. Maybe you could wear it tomorrow or something. I mean, if you want to. Go on, open it."

"Well…thank you," she said, accepting the box with a small smile.

Ronnie watched her untie the thin green ribbon and remove the lid. He didn't realize he had been holding his breath until she smiled and the air whooshed out of him.

"Oh…" Tamsin's dark eyes shone as she held up the simple gold bracelet, which sported a charm in the shape of the letter _T_. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

"You really think so?" For the longest time, Ronnie had agonized over what to give her as a present. He had wanted it to be something special, but was afraid to give her anything too frilly. Tamsin struck him as the type of girl who didn't really like that kind of thing.

"Yes, I really think so. Here, put it on me."

A relieved laugh escaped him as he fastened the bracelet around her left wrist. "It goes great with your pj's."

"That it does. Thank you, kind sir," she joked as she stood on tiptoe to slip her arms around his neck. Her eyes slid upwards to the sprig of mistletoe dangling over their heads.

"Boy, am I glad I didn't wait for you in the living room." Ronnie paused to lick the jam from the corner of her mouth before kissing her. 

* * *

"Merry Christmas, Mom!"

"Merry Christmas, darling!" Diana replied. The cheer in her voice brought a smile to Tamsin's face. "How has your holiday been so far?"

"Great! Thanks for all the presents." She and Uncle Jon had opened their presents at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Day. Tamsin's mother had sent her a box of things, including a killer dress of berry-colored chiffon. "I love the dress you gave me," she went on. "I'm going to wear it to the Senior Banquet." Even if Uncle Jon had eyed it with alarm when she had lifted the rather skimpy slip out of its tissue paper wrappings.

"Don't ruin it so I can borrow it when you get back."

She laughed. "Yes, Mother. Did you get the stuff we sent?"

"Not yet, sweetie. I'll wait for them, though."

"You'd better. I looked all over for your present."

"Will I like it?"

_"You'd better!" _

Mother and daughter laughed. "Now, do you have any idea what Mr. Wonderful is getting you?" her mother asked, using the nickname she had recently given Ronnie. 

Tamsin glanced down at the bracelet on her wrist. "He already gave me my present."

"What is it?"

"A bracelet."

"Gold, silver or neither?"

_"MOM!" she squawked indignantly. Did it matter?_

"All right, all right, never mind," Diana soothed. "It's the thought that counts, anyway. And it was nice of him to give you your present early."

She smiled again. "Yeah. He figured I could wear it when he comes with his parents for dinner tonight."

"Ooh, dinner! What are you having?"

"Oh, the usual roast prime rib with all the trimmings. Will you be going to Uncle Richard's today?"

"_Mais oui! Patrick has promised prosciutto with melon, medallions of veal and salmon in garlic butter sauce, salad with raspberry vinaigrette, and lots of other sinful gourmet goodies for dinner. And __you're stuck over there with a boring old cow!" her mother chortled as Tamsin whined longingly._

"I thought you were supposed to be nice on Christmas Day."

"They didn't say anything about being smug."

"Ha ha ha," she replied flatly, even as she grinned. It was great to joke around with her mom like this again. 

"Now, what did you get Mr. Wonderful?"

"A book and some goldfish."

It was her mother's turn to squawk. "_WHAT?_ He gets you a bracelet and you get him a _book_?"

"Well, he's been dying to read the book!" Tamsin defended herself. "And what happened to 'It's the thought that counts'?"

* * *

The new semester opened on January 3rd and although it was a crisp, sunny Wednesday morning, the TC Williams students weren't happy about being back in school so early in the year. "Man, that vacation was over too soon," Big Julius complained. Some of the Titans and their friends were hanging out in the student parking lot on that first morning back, delaying having to go in as long as possible.

"I barely got time to get my breath back from all the holiday stuff my family did," Ryan chimed in.

"Maybe the teachers will be easy on us today," Emma said. "I'm sure they didn't have much of a vacation, either."

"Let's hope so," Petey said, then changed the subject. "So, Sunshine, how's Sid?"

Ronnie laughed. "Sid" was short for "Siddhartha," one of the goldfish Tamsin had given him. He'd named the fish after characters from the Hermann Hesse book they had read. "He and Kamala are doing great, thanks."

"Man, those fish have fancier names than _I_ do," Gerry said.

"Well, Sunshine's a fancy kind of guy," Petey joked.

Just then, a motorcycle came roaring into the student parking lot. "Whoa!" Big Julius exclaimed, whipping around like many of the others to get a closer look. "Who was that?"

It was no one they knew. After parking near the side entrance, next to the bicycles, the guy tugged off his helmet, revealing curly dark hair, and strode into the school building without sparing the gawkers a second glance. "Cool bike," Ryan said.

"Cool jacket," Sharon added, and prodded her boyfriend. "Why don't _you_ wear one, Ju?"

"I already have a leather jacket," he replied.

"I meant a real, black-leather one, not that hideous purple one you keep hanging on to."

"Come on now, Sharon," Petey said, "brothers don't really wear leather jackets." He grinned. "It's the _white boys who use 'em to feel all macho and stuff."_

"How come _you don't wear a leather jacket?" Tamsin asked Ronnie._

"Because _I don't need one to feel macho?" he replied, mimicking her tone._

She laughed along with the others. "Well, you don't look like the type to wear one, anyway."

"Is that OK with you, Tamsin?" Emma teased.

Tamsin stuck out her tongue against the ribbing that followed her friend's question even as she patted Ronnie's arm. "Of course it is."

* * *

The guy with the motorcycle was a newcomer named Michael Cardinal, Big Julius reported at lunch that day. They had Calculus together. Michael was also in Tamsin's English class, as she later found out when he swaggered into Uncle Jon's classroom that afternoon. 

Conversation hushed as the class watched him walk to the teacher's desk and hand Uncle Jon an orange card. They watched Uncle Jon look it over, smile, and say something to the stranger. "All right," he said, rapping on his desk to get everyone's attention (even though he already had it for the past few moments), "we've got a new student joining us this semester. Everyone, this is Michael Cardinal, who comes to us from Seattle, Washington. Michael, this is everyone."

The class laughed and Michael gave a small smile. He was kind of on the lean side, like Alan; and behind his wire-rimmed glasses, Tamsin could see that his eyes were a surprising light gray. "Michael is technically a junior, but he's taking senior English and Calculus," Uncle Jon went on as he waved away _ooh's of mocking admiration. "Now, Mike, why don't you tell us about yourself?" he told the dark-haired boy. "On the first day of school, everyone gave their names and the book they were reading. How about doing the same?"_

Michael shrugged. "Sure," he said. He was kind of soft-spoken, like Ronnie, but Michael's voice was huskier. "Like Mr. Graham said, my name's Michael Cardinal. I'd rather be called 'Michael' than 'Mike.' I'm presently reading _Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach."_

"Thank you, Michael," Unce Jon said as the class applauded politely. "Welcome to TC Williams High School. Pick a seat and, although we are starting a new unit today, I still recommend that you borrow notes from someone — borrow Tamsin's. The football team borrows from her and they're doing very well." He grinned at her, then at the chuckling Titans. "Tam, is it all right if Michael borrows your notes?"

"Sure," Tamsin said. She unclipped her notes from her loose-leaf notebook and handed them to Michael as he took the seat next to her. "Here you go."

He took the notes and with a murmur of thanks. "Your name's Tamsin?" he asked in his quiet voice.

"Uh-huh."

Michael smiled. "That's cool."

* * *

The first week back wasn't so bad. School reopened on a Wednesday, so it was technically only a half-week, and there was a pep rally held in the gym that Friday afternoon for the winter sports teams. "Miranda's back on the squad," Emma noted as the cheerleaders went into their first routine. Sure enough, the redheaded girl was back at front and center.

"Her suspension was only for a month, anyway," Tamsin reminded her. "I wonder if she's still smoking?"

"Lisa says she's stopped. I guess she's learned her lesson."

They watched Miranda yell cheers and shake her pompoms. Her smile was still bright, but there was something definitely subdued about her. Perhaps she used her time off to do some thinking. "Good for her," Tamsin said.

"That's really magnanimous of you, Tamsin," Corey praised, then waved to Robin when she caught sight of them. 

"If I were in your shoes," Liz said, "I'd be cursing the ground she walks on." She pretended to think about it, then laughed. "But then I already do that!"

"Well, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt," Tamsin told her friends with a grin. "And if she makes a move on Ronnie again, I'm kicking her ass!"

The other girl laughed. "Thanks. I feel so much better about my failings now."

They cheered along with everyone as Mr. Hilliard introduced the winter sports teams. Liz gave a piercing whistle when Daniel Goldman came out to be recognized with the rest of the hockey team. "Liz _likes_ him," Corey explained to Tamsin and Emma.

"I do not!" Liz retorted, her cheeks pink. "We're just friends!"

"Well, you wouldn't be friends if you didn't like him, now, would you?"

"Shut up!"

The students cheered as the wrestling team came forward (Tamsin couldn't help hissing a bit when Ray Budds' name was called), then rose in their seats when the Titans were introduced. That day's pep rally was also to cheer on the football team as they went to defend their state championship that Sunday. 

Tamsin and her friends cheered on brothers, friends, and classmates. She blushed and managed a small wave when Ronnie found her and grinned. He shot her another grin as the Titans lined up to do their trademark warm-up, which he knew she hated. "Why do you hate the warm-up so much, anyway?" Emma asked her.

She gratefully turned away from the spectacle to look at her friend. "Would _you be seen dead doing that?" Tamsin laughed as the blonde girl made a face. "Neither would I."_

After the number, the cheerleaders took the floor to lead the students through another round of cheers. The TC Williams High School song was ringing in Tamsin's ears when everyone finally filed out of the gym. "Instead of getting pumped up for this Sunday's game, I have a headache," Corey complained. "Pep rallies are much easier to stomach when you're down there being cheered for."

"Well, we wouldn't know, Mr. Big Shot Baseball Star," Liz teased.

The sandy-haired boy stuck his tongue out at his friend. "Just making an observation, Liz. C'mon, let's find Ryan and the others. Maybe they've changed out of their uniforms by now."

Tamsin followed them down the hall to the exit leading to the student parking lot, where the Hunter twins had agreed to meet their friends. On their way there, she passed by Michael Cardinal, going the other way. "Hi, Tamsin," he said.

"Hey," she replied with a polite nod.

"I'll have your notes back soon." 

She smiled. The Titans, even Ronnie, often forgot they had her notes unless she asked for them back. "Don't worry about it. Just give them back when you're done with them."

Sharon, Rev and Cat were the only ones already waiting by the exit when Tamsin and the others arrived. "Hey, there," Rev greeted them. "Where were y'all sitting? We couldn't find you."

"We came in late and couldn't get seats up front," Emma explained. 

"At least that meant I didn't have to watch that warm-up so closely," Tamsin muttered. The blonde girl nudged her, stifling a giggle.

"We'd better start thinkin' of places to go before the guys get here," Sharon suggested, "or else we'll be stuck here decidin' where to hang out."

"You sound like we take forever to decide," Big Julius complained as he and the Titans appeared. Robin, who had also changed out of her uniform after the pep rally, wasn't far behind.

"You do, actually," Corey teased as he slung an arm around his girlfriend and kissed her on the cheek.

"Well, not this time," Petey said. "I say we go to the Snack n' Cue."

Surprisingly, everyone agreed to Petey's suggestion right off. "Hey, Liz, why do you want to go to the Snack n' Cue all of a sudden?" Ryan teased. "Is _Dan Goldman going to be there?"_

"Hey, Ryan, who do you care that Liz wants to go there all of a sudden?" Robin retorted before the dark-haired girl could reply. Liz snorted, looking both amused and flustered at what her friend's reply.

"He just wants to annoy her, that's all," Corey said, rolling his eyes. "Separate those two, will you?"

Ronnie smiled at Tamsin as their friends began to discuss whom was going to ride with whom. "Are you joining us?" he asked.

She smiled back, remembering how she had had to refuse the last time he had asked her. They both knew things were going to be different this time around. "Of course I am!" Tamsin laughed. "If you were going to leave me behind, I would have been very upset!"

* * *

"Good luck this afternoon, Sunshine. I hear Edison has a tough team, but I know you boys will pull another one off this year."

Ronnie nodded politely and shook the well-dressed man's hand. "Thank you, sir."

"Good luck, Sunshine!" a little girl cried. "Score a touchdown for me!"

He chuckled and smiled at the kid as she walked by with her parents. "I will."

"Good luck, Mr. Bass," Reverend Stokes said, shaking Ronnie's hand as the Basses finally made to leave the church cloakroom.

"Thank you, Reverend," Ronnie replied as he and his parents filed past the minister. 

It was Sunday, January 5th. "Everyone's looking forward to the big game this afternoon," Col. Bass observed as Ronnie drove his parents home for lunch. 

"They sure are," Ronnie replied, glancing briefly at the signs hanging in every shop window and from every lamppost. The banners were up all over town. There were ads wishing the Titans luck and analyses of the teams in the sports section of the _Sentinel. Reverend Stokes had even included a special prayer for the Titans during that morning's service. _

"You nervous?"

_"Bill!" Mrs. Bass admonished her husband._

"Some," Ronnie admitted. He always got a bit nervous before every game, but there seemed to be a double dose of butterflies in his stomach that day. This was the Big Game. Not only was it for the state championship, it was his (and many of his teammates') last time to suit up for the Titans. And he wanted to go out with a bang.

"Well, you'll do great," his father told him. "You always do."

"Thanks, Dad."

After lunch ("Nothing too heavy, so you can be quick on your feet at the game"), Ronnie hitched a ride to school with Alan. The two boys said little on the way there; and when they arrived at the TC Williams High School football stadium, they found that their teammates were similarly subdued. 

Gerry and Big Julius sat together, quietly talking strategy. Nearby, Ryan's radio announced that it was dedicating Three Dog Night's "Black and White" to the Titans. "Y'all all right?" Petey asked the two boys as he walked by. 

"Just fine, man," Big Julius replied with a small smile. There was a book in his hands and he was flipping through the pages. "Just puttin' my game face on."

"Shucks, Julius, you ain't got no other face besides your game face!" Gerry joked. The Titans dressing nearby laughed as he narrowed his eyes and stuck out his jaw in comically mean expression.

"That ain't me, Bertier," his friend replied, cracking a grin. "I look much better than that. _You, on the other hand…" To his audience's delight, Big Julius flared his nostrils and bared his teeth in what was supposed to be his version of Gerry's game face._

"Aw, no, man, Gerry never looked like that!" Petey said, getting into the swing of things. "He looked like _this_!" 

The mood in the locker room lightened considerably as the Titans started imitating each other's (and their coaches') game faces. 

Everyone was relaxed and laughing when the coaches walked in. The butterflies in Ronnie's stomach multiplied again at the sight of Boone's stony game face. They had managed to forget it for a while, but the coaches' arrival reminded the Titans that game time was very, very near.

Big Julius walked over to have a word with the coaches. Ronnie looked up from tying his cleats in time to see Yoast smile at the big black boy. "All right," Boone called out, clapping his hands for silence. "Titans, your captain has asked that he be allowed to share something with all of you before the game starts. I hope you'll all listen to what he has to say." He nodded to Big Julius. "Go ahead, son."

The Titans rose to their feet as Big Julius walked to the middle of the locker room. He carried his book in his hands. "So, uh, I guess y'all know that this is the last game for a lot of us," he said in a quiet voice that was nevertheless carried through the respectful silence, "myself included. I, uh, came across this while I was doing some reading for school and, uh, it got me to thinkin' about us and the times we've had.

"They ain't all been good," he went on, trading grins with Gerry, "and they weren't all bad, either. But we got through them together and that was important. Anyway, when I read this, I, uh, thought, you know, that it was _us_. It was our story." He smiled shyly at his teammates. "So, uh, here goes," he said, opening his book and beginning to read.

_He that outlives this day and comes safe home_

_Will stand o' tiptoe when this day is named_

_And rouse him at the name of Crispian…_

Ronnie smiled as Big Julius spoke the familiar words of the speech from Shakespeare's _Henry V_, the one given by King Henry before leading his English troops into the battle of Agincourt. 

_Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,_

_But he'll remember with advantages_

_What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,_

_Familiar in his mouth as household words,_

_Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,_

_Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,_

_Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered._

Ronnie knew the speech because it had a special meaning for Col. Bass and his Air Force buddies. There was a framed copy of the text hanging in his father's study. 

He looked around the room and saw that there were smiles on the other Titans' faces. Apparently, the speech was going to have a special meaning for them, too. And why shouldn't it? They _were going into battle, in a way. The Edison High School Eagles, who they would be facing shortly, were a tough team. They had been in the semifinals against Marshall last year. Ronnie hoped that the fact that the underdog English beat the French boded well for the Titans._

_But we in it shall be remembered —_

_We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;_

_For he today that sheds his blood with me _

_Shall be my brother…_

He grinned at that. The "band of brothers" line was his favorite part, and it was particularly fitting in this case. He had made lots of friends in many parts of the country, moving around the way he had, but nothing compared to what he and the Titans had gone through in the past two years. They had grown up in tumultuous times, what with all the things that happened with Kennedy and Nixon and in Vietnam, but history hadn't touched them so personally until black and white had come together at TC Williams High School. How many other people could boast that they had actually been part of history in the making?

_And gentlemen in England now abed_

_Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,_

_And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks_

_That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day._

* * *

"Oh, my God, the state championships!" Emma squealed as she and Tamsin sat in the bleachers, waiting for the game to start. "I'm so nervous!"

"Do you think the weather will affect the game?" Tamsin asked, wishing she had a hot water bottle tucked inside her coat. It wasn't snowing that afternoon, but it was really cold. She couldn't imagine actually playing out in weather like this without being bundled to the eyebrows in warm clothes.

"Don't worry, Tamsin," Rev assured her. "The guys will be fine! They practiced on this very field just yesterday and got through it well enough, didn't they?"

"Yeah, and football players toughen themselves up for this kind of thing," Corey added. "Sometimes Ryan sleeps naked during winter to condition himself for playing in cold weather."

_"Corey!" Emma and Cat shrieked in unison. Tamsin clapped her hands over Sheryl's ears and Rev tried to cover Nikki's, but it was obvious from the little girls' giggles that they were too late._

"I so did not need to know that," Liz said, her cheeks as red as her stocking cap. "I don't think I'll be able to look Ryan in the eye for a while. Maybe not ever again."

"Well, forget that!" Sheryl ordered, rubbing her ears and jumping to her feet. "The Titans are coming!"

Ryan's sleeping habits were forgotten (with some difficulty on Liz's part) as the Titans took the field to do their trademark warm-up. The team seemed to have no reaction to the frigid weather, save for the clouds of steam coming out of their helmets. To Tamsin's relief, no one slipped, so perhaps there were no icy patches on the ground.

"Here we go!" Rev exclaimed as the coin was tossed and the referee announced that the Titans would be receiving the kickoff. The battle for the 1972 Virginia High School AAA Football Championship had begun.

As usual, Ronnie sought Tamsin out in the crowd and sent her a thumbs-up. She waved back and watched, chin propped on her mitten-clad fist, as he joined his teammates in the huddle. Never, in her wildest dreams, did she ever imagine that she would go out with the football team's star quarterback and a tiny part of her still cringed whenever he picked her out of the crowd during games.  On the whole, however, Tamsin loved every minute of it. Ronnie was smart, straightforward and a sweetheart. Given that, the idea of dating a quarterback — one of the biggest cliches in the book — actually had a campy appeal. 

Cheering him on was kind of a cliché, too, but she screamed herself hoarse anyway because Ronnie had engineered a strong drive toward the Eagles' end zone, culminating in a touchdown by Eddie Lindros, the first of the game.

"All right!" Rev called over Liz's cheering. "Now that's what you call scoring with authority!"

Tamsin watched avidly as the Titans dominated the rest of the first quarter. The Eagles' defense was unable to make any tackles that counted, and their attempts to score were completely smothered. Big Julius sacked Mark Gunderson, the Eagles' All-American quarterback, during the third down. On the Eagles' desperate fourth down attempt, Ryan forced a turnover and ran the ball in for another touchdown.

"All right!" Liz cried, applauding as the blond boy spiked the ball in triumph. "That was some hustle!"

"You're just saying that because you know he sleeps naked," Corey teased.

The dark-haired girl blushed and smacked her friend on the arm. "Will you shut up about that?"

An Eagle field goal attempt failed, and at the close of the first quarter, the score was 14-0 in favor of the Titans. "This could be an easier win that I thought!" Sheryl said happily.

"Let's not get too over-confident," Tamsin warned.

"What's there to be over-confident about? We're steamrollerin' those guys! Now smile nice and wave to Sunshine — he's lookin' at you again!"

The Titans continued to do no wrong in the second quarter. Although the Eagles made some progress downfield, the defense stopped them again. Petey returned a weak punt and powered through the Eagles' offense all the way to the Titans' 30-yard line. The Titans offense came close to scoring another touchdown, but Paul Ellering, the Eagles' fleet-footed cornerback, intercepted the pass and set up an Eagle drive that resulted in a field goal.

_"Aw, nuts!" Sheryl exclaimed, so loudly that her father sent her a severe look from the sidelines._

As if to placate the little girl, Jim Frederick returned the next Eagle kickoff and sped downfield. His 47-yard gain paved the way for another touchdown. "Ha! Now that's more like it!" Sheryl said, satisfied.

* * *

The Eagles and the Titans each scored a touchdown after that, bringing the score to 28-10 in favor of the Titans at the close of the first half. "OK, Edison's startin' to show a little fire out there," Boone said in the locker room during the break that followed, "but we are still leading! Defense, we need you to stay strong out there! All we have to do is hang on for two more quarters and we win!"

"We'll try our best, Herman," Yoast told him.

"You got it, Coach!" Big Julius vowed at the same time.

The stands were a roaring blaze of red and white as the Titans took the field at the opening of the third quarter. Ryan started things off with a bang by forcing a turnover and taking the ball all the way to the Titans' 20-yard line.

"Good going, Hunter," Eddie congratulated his friend as the defense trooped triumphantly off the field.

Ryan grinned. He had ably filled into the void left by Gerry Bertier and was a shoo-in for co-captain next year. "Thanks, man."

"Why didn't you just go ahead and score the touchdown?"

"I thought I'd let you guys do it — you know, give the offense the chance to catch up."

"Shut up, man!" Ronnie chuckled and pounded the other boy's shoulder pads before joining the offense in huddle. He glanced up at where Tamsin was sitting before turning back to his teammates and relaying Boone's instructions.

They took their positions along the line of scrimmage. _"Red 17!"_ Ronnie yelled above the cheering of the home crowd. _"Red 17! Hut-hut!"_

With only 20 yards to go, it was easy for Jim to run to the end zone and anticipate the pass while the offensive line tied up the Eagles defense. Ronnie cocked back his arm and let the ball fly. It rose and fell in a graceful arc, toward the receiver's waiting hands…

…only to be intercepted by Paul Ellering. Fortunately, Blue caught up with him before he got too far. "We really ought to do something about that guy," Eddie grumbled after the play was whistled dead. "I'm really starting to hate him."

Possession shifted back and forth between the two teams, but neither was able to score. The game remained a defensive battle until a Hail Mary pass from Gunderson found a receiver who proved too slippery for Petey. Touchdown, Eagles.

The Titans were unable to retaliate. They and the rest of the TC Williams crowd watched with mounting alarm as almost all of Ronnie's passes were intercepted. Those that weren't were turned over. The defense was unable to make the tackles that counted, and a Titan field goal attempt failed.

In contrast to the first half, the second half seemed to be all about the Eagles. They scored another touchdown toward the end of the third quarter, and again at the start of the fourth to take the lead, 31-28.

"What happened to us?" Blue wondered aloud as the offense trudged to the bench during a timeout. "It's like we all got replaced by pod people."

"Pod people who can't play worth a damn," Alan added glumly. 

"We're trying the best we can," Ronnie said. 

"Well, it's obviously not good enough," the other boy snapped. Even though he had already made a big contribution during the first quarter, Alan was anxious to redeem himself after the non-touchdown at the regional championships. He was obviously frustrated with the way the team was now playing.

Up in the bleachers, Tamsin was on her feet with the rest of the Titans fans. She wasn't cheering wildly the way she had been during the first half; but she was still clapping her hands. When she saw Ronnie looking at her, she gave him an encouraging nod. Ronnie grinned back and joined his teammates on the sidelines.

The defense didn't fare any better when it was their turn on the field. Their opponents practically danced circles around them on their way to a substantial yard gain. They managed to hold the Eagles off and the offense did their best to shift play back nearer to the Eagles' end zone. However, the Eagles forced another turnover and ran the 15 remaining yards for another touchdown. 38-28, Eagles.

Boone bellowed for the Titans' last timeout. 

The Titans gathered on the sidelines, heads bowed, ashamed to face their coaches. Surprisingly, the head coach didn't bawl anyone out. He did look at each and every one of them with an expression so stony that they all squirmed, but he said only one thing.

"I want that ball and I want it in the end zone!"

The Titans responded to the terse instruction and, after the kickoff return, the offense returned to the field intent on a rally. "They're expecting us to go to Jim," Ronnie said in the huddle. "He's going to get everyone away from me and then throw the ball back for a flea flicker. Who wants to take it in?"

"Do you have to ask?" Alan asked.

The other boy grinned and slapped his teammate's shoulder. "Sorry. I was just going for a bit of drama there. OK, it's going to Alan. Let's make it count, all right? Oh, and guys, I'd really appreciate it if Pain-in-the-Ass Ellering is humiliated during this play."

"So would I!" Blue and Eddie chorused.

The Titans were grinning when they took the field. _"All right! Ready!"_ Ronnie yelled. _"Green 23! Green 23! Hut-hut!"_

The ball was snapped, and as the Eagles expected, Ronnie pitched the ball to Jim. As the Titans expected, their opponents all went after him, led by Ellering. Alan sprinted downfield, but he didn't have the ball so no one paid him any attention.

Jim led his defenders several yards downfield before the ball came sailing up and away from the small cluster of Eagles. Ronnie caught it and fired the long bomb. Most of the Eagles had started toward him, but some were running the other way toward Alan. Ronnie and the rest of the Titans clenched their fists and watched the ball, willing it to reach Alan before those other guys could. "Yes…yes…"

_"YES!" Roars filled the stadium again as Alan caught the ball neatly and took it in for the touchdown, several steps ahead of Paul Ellering._

When Ronnie made his way back to the sidelines, he saw Boone signaling for an onside kick. With time running out, the game belonged to whoever had the ball. The Titans head coach clearly wanted to regain possession, and quickly!

His heart began to pound with a freight train pace as the ball bounced off the side of the kicker's foot. It traveled ten yards and during the scramble that ensued, Ryan dove for the ball to regain it for the Titans. 

The stadium erupted. Seven seconds and seventy yards to go. 

Ronnie's heart was in his throat as the offense took the field for what would probably be the last time, but he fought to keep his voice clear. _"Green 49! Green 49! Hut-hut!"_

He pretended to hand off to Alan the way he had at the regional championships, while Jim sped off with the ball. 

Ronnie watched in dismay as one Eagle, then two, broke away from Alan to cover Jim. The halfback went down.

Three. Two. One.

* * *

It was all over.

Ronnie sighed heavily as the Eagles and their supporters flooded the field. He stood with Blue, Eddie, Alan and Jim, their arms tight around each other, and behind him he could feel their other teammates coming up to join in the group hug.

"What a way to go, huh?" Blue asked.

Ronnie mustered a smile, even though his insides felt like they had been crushed into a cube the way old cars are at the junkyard. "Yeah, we had a perfect regular season and won the regional championships two years in a row. What a way to go."

The big black boy grinned and slugged his shoulder. "That ain't what I meant, Sunshine, but that's a damn good point."

As the Titans applauded for the winning team, Ronnie looked up at the bleachers. His parents were there, clapping and nodding as if to reassure him that win or lose, they loved him and were proud of him. Sheryl and Mr. Bosely were crying. Rev's face was set, while Tamsin stared intently at him.

She opened her mouth and started to yell something. The crowd quickly picked up the chant. _"TI-TANS! TI-TANS!"_

The celebration for second place built into a roar that drowned out the one for first place. It didn't sound like the crowd had any plans of stopping while there were still people on the field.

Boone acknowledged the accolades with a nod, and then gave each of his players a fatherly slap on the shoulder pads. "Good game, boys," he said, and sounded like he meant it. "Go hit the showers."

When Ronnie looked up at the bleachers again, right before walking into the tunnel leading to the locker rooms, but Tamsin was gone.

She burst into the passageway just after he entered it, and the next thing he knew, she had plowed right into him, her cheek pillowed against his chest. "It's OK," she said hoarsely, slipping her arms around his middle.

He sighed, breathing in the sweet scent of jasmine in winter. "Yeah, I know." Ronnie hugged Tamsin back and kissed her forehead, feeling more and more of the tension ebb away. Then it occurred to him that he'd just come off the field and probably didn't feel or smell none too fresh. "Uh…Tamsin," he mumbled, "I think I'd better hit the showers…"

"Oh. Right." She chuckled and released him slowly. "Sorry I kept you. I didn't stop to think…"

"Hey, _I should be apologizing," he told her, wiping a small smudge of dirt off her cheek. It had probably come from one of the many smears decorating the front of his jersey. "I'm not that much fun to hug when I've just left the game and still got all my equipment on."_

Tamsin caught his hand, wrinkled her nose and giggled. "Yeah, you aren't."

"I'll meet you out front after I get cleaned up, OK?"

She pressed a quick kiss to the scrapes across his knuckles. "OK."

Big Julius was the only one still on his way to the showers when Ronnie finally left her. The big black boy managed a tired grin as they walked toward the locker rooms together. "If she's willing to hug you the minute you get off the field," he said, "it must be love."

Ronnie grinned back. He was achy, tired and still on the losing team, but he felt a whole lot better. "Yeah, I guess so."

_We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;_

_For he today that sheds his blood with me _

_Shall be my brother…_


	13. OUTTAKE: Black & White

**Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans belong to Disney. The title of this chapter is taken from the 1972 Three Dog Night song. I only own Tamsin, the Edison High School Eagles, and assorted TC Williams students and Titans._**

**Technical Notes: This is an alternate ending to the football game in the previous chapter. I still believe the Titans can't win everything, but wrote this for those who want to read about them winning. (It was tough writing about them losing, believe me!)**

**Author's Notes: Many thanks, as always, to Livia Liana for the football beta read. I feel I've learned quite a bit about the game from you, despite all the errors that still keep cropping up in my initial drafts! ("Prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the complacency of wisdom." — Branch Rickey) Thank you for sharing the headache with me! I hope you're open to sharing more when it's time to write Rev's story ;-) **

And, as always, thank you to everyone who reviewed :D Welcome aboard, Anni!

Outtake — Black and White 

"Oh, my God, the state championships!" Emma squealed as she and Tamsin sat in the bleachers, waiting for the game to start. "I'm so nervous!"

"Do you think the weather will affect the game?" Tamsin asked, wishing she had a hot water bottle tucked inside her coat. It wasn't snowing that afternoon, but it was really cold. She couldn't imagine actually playing out in weather like this without being bundled to the eyebrows in warm clothes.

"Don't worry, Tamsin," Rev assured her. "The guys will be fine!"

"Yeah, football players toughen themselves up for this kind of thing," Corey added. "Sometimes Ryan sleeps naked during winter to condition himself for playing in cold weather."

_"Corey!" Emma and Cat shrieked in unison. Tamsin clapped her hands over Sheryl's ears and Rev tried to cover Nikki's, but it was obvious from the little girls' giggles that they were too late._

"I so did not need to know that," Liz said, her cheeks as red as her stocking cap. "I don't think I'll be able to look Ryan in the eye for a while. Maybe not ever again."

"Well, forget that!" Sheryl ordered, jumping to her feet. "The Titans are coming!"

Ryan's sleeping habits were forgotten (with some difficulty on Liz's part) as the Titans took the field to do their trademark warm-up. The team seemed to have no reaction to the frigid weather, save for the clouds of steam coming out of their helmets. To Tamsin's relief, no one slipped, so perhaps there were no icy patches on the ground.

"Here we go!" Rev exclaimed as the coin was tossed and the referee announced that the Titans would be receiving the kickoff. The battle for the 1972 Virginia High School AAA Football Championship had begun.

As usual, Ronnie sought Tamsin out in the crowd and sent her a thumbs-up. She waved back and watched, chin propped on her mitten-clad fist, as he joined his teammates in the huddle. Never, in her wildest dreams, did she ever imagine that she would be dating a football player. A tiny part of her still cringed whenever he picked her out of the crowd during games.  On the whole, however, Tamsin loved every minute of it. Ronnie was smart, straightforward and a sweetheart — nothing at all like the stereotypical dumb jock. Given that, the extremely cliched idea of dating a quarterback actually had a campy appeal. 

Cheering him on was kind of a cliché, too, but she screamed herself hoarse anyway because Ronnie had engineered a strong drive toward the Eagles' end zone, culminating in a touchdown by Eddie Lindros, the first of the game.

"All right!" Rev called over Liz's cheering. "Now that's what you call scoring with authority!"

Tamsin watched avidly as the Titans dominated the rest of the first quarter. The Eagles' defense was unable to make any tackles that counted, and their attempts to score were completely smothered. Big Julius sacked Mark Gunderson, the Eagles' All-American quarterback, during the third down. On the Eagles' desperate fourth down attempt, Ryan forced a turnover and ran the ball in for another touchdown.

"All right!" Liz cried, applauding as the blond boy spiked the ball in triumph. "That was some hustle!"

"You're just saying that because you know he sleeps naked," Corey teased.

The dark-haired girl blushed and smacked her friend on the arm. "Will you shut up about that?"

An Eagle field goal attempt failed, and at the close of the first quarter, the score was 14-0 in favor of the Titans. "This could be an easier win that I thought!" Sheryl said happily.

"Let's not get too over-confident," Tamsin warned.

"What's there to be over-confident about? We're steamrollerin' those guys! Now smile nice and wave to Sunshine — he's lookin' at you again!"

The Titans continued to do no wrong in the second quarter. Although the Eagles made some progress downfield, the defense stopped them again. Petey returned a weak punt and powered through the Eagles' offense all the way to the Titans' 30-yard line. The Titans offense came close to scoring another touchdown, but Paul Ellering, the Eagles' fleet-footed cornerback, intercepted the pass and set up an Eagle drive that resulted in a field goal.

_"Aw, nuts!" Sheryl exclaimed, so loudly that her father sent her a severe look from the sidelines._

As if to placate the little girl, Jim Frederick returned the next Eagle kickoff and sped downfield. His 47-yard gain paved the way for another touchdown. 

"Ha! Now that's more like it!" Sheryl said, satisfied.

* * *

The Eagles and the Titans each scored a touchdown after that, bringing the score to 28-10 in favor of the Titans at the close of the first half. "OK, Edison's startin' to show a little fire out there," Boone said in the locker room during the break that followed, "but we are still leading! Defense, we need you to stay strong out there! All we have to do is hang on for two more quarters and we win!"

"We'll try our best, Herman," Yoast told him.

"You got it, Coach!" Big Julius vowed at the same time.

The stands were a roaring blaze of red and white as the Titans took the field at the opening of the third quarter. Ryan started things off with a bang by forcing a turnover and taking the ball all the way to the Titans' 20-yard line.

"Good going, Hunter," Eddie congratulated his friend as the defense trooped triumphantly off the field.

Ryan grinned. He had ably filled into the void left by Gerry Bertier and was a shoo-in for co-captain next year. "Thanks, man."

"Why didn't you just go ahead and score the touchdown?"

"I thought I'd let you guys do it — you know, give the offense the chance to catch up."

"Shut up, man!" Ronnie chuckled and pounded the other boy's shoulder pads before joining the offense in huddle. He glanced up at where Tamsin was sitting before turning back to his teammates and relaying Boone's instructions.

They took their positions along the line of scrimmage. _"Red 17!"_ Ronnie yelled above the cheering of the home crowd. _"Red 17! Hut-hut!"_

With only 20 yards to go, it was easy for Jim to run to the end zone and anticipate the pass while the offensive line tied up the Eagles defense. Ronnie cocked back his arm and let the ball fly. It rose and fell in a graceful arc, toward the receiver's waiting hands…

…only to be intercepted by Paul Ellering. Fortunately, Blue caught up with him before he got too far. "We really ought to do something about that guy," Eddie grumbled after the play was whistled dead. "I'm really starting to hate him."

Possession shifted back and forth between the two teams, but neither was able to score. The game remained a defensive battle until a Hail Mary pass from Gunderson found a receiver who proved too slippery for Petey. Touchdown, Eagles.

The Titans were unable to retaliate. They and the rest of the TC Williams crowd watched with mounting alarm as almost all of Ronnie's passes were intercepted. Those that weren't were turned over. The defense was unable to make the tackles that counted, and a Titan field goal attempt failed.

In contrast to the first half, the second half seemed to be all about the Eagles. They scored another touchdown toward the end of the third quarter, and again at the start of the fourth to take the lead, 31-28.

"What happened to us?" Blue wondered aloud as the offense trudged to the bench during a timeout. "It's like we all got replaced by pod people."

"Pod people who can't play worth a damn," Alan added glumly. 

"We're trying the best we can," Ronnie said. 

"Well, it's obviously not good enough," the other boy snapped. Even though he had already made a big contribution during the first quarter, Alan was anxious to redeem himself after the non-touchdown at the regional championships. He was obviously frustrated with the way the team was now playing.

Up in the bleachers, Tamsin was on her feet with the rest of the Titans fans. She wasn't cheering wildly the way she had been during the first half; but she was still clapping her hands. When she saw Ronnie looking at her, she gave him an encouraging nod. Ronnie grinned back and joined his teammates on the sidelines.

The defense didn't fare any better when it was their turn on the field. Their opponents practically danced circles around them on their way to a substantial yard gain. They managed to hold the Eagles off and the offense did their best to shift play back nearer to the Eagles' end zone. However, the Eagles forced another turnover and ran the 15 remaining yards for another touchdown. 38-28, Eagles. Boone bellowed for a timeout.

The Titans gathered on the sidelines, heads bowed, ashamed to face their coaches. To their relief, the head coach didn't bawl anyone out. He did look at each and every one of them with an expression so stony that they all squirmed, but he said only one thing.

"I want that ball and I want it in the end zone!"

The Titans responded to the terse instruction and, after the kickoff return, the offense returned to the field intent on a rally. In the huddle, Ronnie relayed Boone's instructions to run the same pass-action play that had saved them during the regional championships. "And Jim," he said to the halfback, "I would really appreciate it if Pain-in-the-Ass Ellering is humiliated during this play." 

"So would we!" Blue and Eddie chorused.

Jim grinned. "I'll make y'all proud of me, I promise."

"And you'll get your chance later," Ronnie told Alan as they trooped to the line of scrimmage. "I promise."

The wiry blond boy smiled tightly. "Thanks, Sunshine."

Ronnie gave him a brief nod and then crouched behind Blue. _"Ready!"_ he hollered. _"Green 49! Green 49! Hut-hut!"_

Alan ran past Ronnie the way he had at the regional championships, pretending he had the ball, but Ellering saw through it easily. Trepidation seized Ronnie as the cornerback broke away from the Eagles converging on Alan and began to pursue Jim. "Come on, Footsteps," Ronnie murmured as a few more Eagles joined the chase. "Shake them off!"

Eagle and Titan fans alike were yelling wildly as Jim sprinted down the middle toward the end zone with Ellering practically stepping on his heels. The Titan halfback poured on more speed, but the Eagle defender continued to hound him. Ronnie watched tensely as Ellering gained on Jim. It looked like the Eagles were a hair away from tackling the halfback and ending the play.

Then suddenly, Jim cut to the outside, too far to the right for Ellering to get him. The TC Williams crowd went wild as he left the Eagle in the dust in a final burst of speed and scored a touchdown, narrowing the gap to 38-35.

Eddie leapt into the air, pumping his fist in victory. _"All right!"_ he chortled. _"In your face, Ellering!"_

Ronnie laughed and thumped his teammate's shoulder pads. "OK, we've had our revenge over that guy, now come on. We still have to win this game."

Boone signaled for an onside kick as the Titan offense returned to the sidelines. "We want that ball back!" Yoast roared to the defense. "And we want it _yesterday!"_

"Aw, man, I knew it," Blue muttered as he and Ronnie went to watch the kickoff return. "Boone is contagious!"

Ronnie's heart began to pound with a freight train pace as the ball bounced off the side of the kicker's foot. It traveled ten yards and during the scramble that ensued, Ryan dove for the ball to regain it for the Titans. 

The stadium erupted and the offense prepared to return to the field. "We got seventy yards and seven seconds to go," Boone said to Ronnie. "Do you want the win or the tie?"

_Did he have to ask? "The win, Coach," the blond boy replied. "The guys don't deserve anything less." The statement came out with more force than he had originally intended. Ronnie hoped irrationally that he wouldn't be benched for being rude._

He wasn't, of course. Boone favored him with a small smile around the gum he was still chewing. "Of course they don't." 

"We're going for the touchdown, ain't we?" Blue asked as the offense gathered for their final huddle. 

Ronnie managed a laugh over the pounding of his heart. "We can go for the field goal if that's what y'all want."

"Heck, no, brother! It's all or nothing!"

"Then that's what it's gonna be." The blond boy quit joking around and looked intently at his teammates. "They're expecting us to go to Jim. He's going to get everyone away from me and then throw the ball back for a flea flicker. Alan, you'd better be in place, you hear?"

"You can count on it," Alan vowed.

"OK, guys." Ronnie took a deep breath. "This is our last time together on the field. Let's make it count, all right?"

The Titans' faces were set when they took the field. Ronnie took one last look around before crouching behind Blue for the last time. _"All right! Ready!"_ he yelled. _"Green 23! Green 23! Hut-hut!"_

As the Eagles expected, Ronnie pitched the ball to Jim at the snap. As the Titans expected, the defense went after him, led by Paul Ellering, who was still smarting from the last touchdown. Alan sprinted downfield, but he didn't have the ball so no one paid him any attention.

Jim led his pursuers several yards downfield before the ball came sailing up and away from the small cluster of Eagles. Ronnie caught it and fired the long bomb. Most of the Eagles had started toward him, but some were running the other way toward Alan. 

Ronnie and the rest of the Titans clenched their fists and watched the ball, willing it to reach Alan before those other guys could. "Yes…"

Alan caught the ball neatly with three seconds to go and the Titans willed him to run. The clock was running out, and if the Eagles tackled him now, it would be all over. "Yes…"

Three. Two. One.

The stadium erupted as Alan took the ball in for the touchdown. _"YES!"_

* * *

A tide of red and white washed out of the stands and flooded onto the field. 

The coaches and players who had been watching from the sidelines reached the Titans first. "That was a hell of a touchdown, Alan," Coach Boone congratulated him. "Good job."

The wiry blond boy grinned proudly. "Thanks, Coach," he managed to say before his family swept him away.

Ronnie grinned as he watched a jubilant Mr. Bosely all but swing his son onto his shoulders. "What a way to go, huh?" he asked Petey, who had come up beside him.

The black boy's eyes were bright. "Yeah," he agreed hoarsely. "What a way to go." 

Ronnie could feel his own eyes starting to smart. "It was quite a ride, wasn't it?" It had finally sunk in that the last game ever of their high school careers was over. He was torn between wanting to celebrate its outcome and play it all over again. 

"Sure was." Petey smiled at him and sniffled. Embarrassed by his show of emotion, he turned to Ryan and Jim. "Hey!" he barked. "Y'all take notes to see how it's done?"

"You young whippersnappers got quite a job ahead of you next year!" Gerry piped up.

"Don't worry," Ronnie laughed. "They can do it. Right, Matt?" he asked the backup quarterback.

"We'll try," Matthew replied bravely.

Presently, Rev came running up, followed by Emma. The blonde girl threw herself into Gerry's lap. "You guys were _unbelievable_!" she cried, bussing her boyfriend noisily on the cheek.

Gerry grinned. "_They were unbelievable, sugar," he corrected her modestly. "They were the ones on the field, after all."_

"Well, _you were on the sidelines telling them what to do out there, right?"_

"Eeew, mushy!" Blue joked. Ronnie chuckled and turned to see a dark-haired girl jump into Ryan's arms and plant one on him. For a heart-stopping moment, he thought it was Tamsin, but it turned out to be Liz Lindros. "I hope she's just caught up in the moment," he murmured to Corey and Robin, who had appeared not long after.

The sandy-haired boy grinned and turned away from the sight of his brother kissing his girlfriend's best friend. "Personally," Robin confided, "I think that was a long time coming."

Then the real Tamsin showed up, whooping madly. Ronnie whooped right back and scooped her up in his arms. "Congratulations!" she said after whooping in his ear some more.

He grinned and kissed her quickly, not wanting to take the spotlight away from Ryan and Liz. "Thanks." And since she was so conveniently near, Ronnie kissed her again.

Tamsin blushed and scrubbed at his cheek with a woolly thumb. "Someone got dirty," she remarked.

"Well, I guess I'd better put you down before you start to smell like me."

She laughed. "That's OK. I need to wash this coat anyway!"

Tamsin did ask to be let down a short while later, though, because Blue started bellowing the Titans' warm-up song and the rest of the team soon took it up, complete with dance steps. She definitely didn't want to be anywhere near that!

Ronnie chuckled and did as she asked. She yelled that she'd see him later and scurried away as he joined his teammates in singing.

_We are the Titans_

The high and mighty Titans… 


	14. Trouble Man

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans and Joe Namath belong to themselves. The fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter is taken from the 1973 Marvin Gaye song. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and "Jazzman" belong to Stevie Wonder and Carole King, respectively; while the line "Good day, Sunshine" was taken from the 1966 Beatles song of the same title. The name of the TC Williams literary magazine was taken from _Longer Letter Later_, a book by Ann M. Martin and Paula Danziger, and came originally from the poem of the same name by Langston Hughes. I do not own any of the books or any of the schools mentioned in this chapter. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, Diana, Landry's, Maxie's and Homegrown & Organic. I also own Cat's brother Elliot and his band.

**Technical Notes:** Tamsin's poem "Dear John" really exists — at least the first two lines do!

**Author's Notes:** Finally, I've updated! I'm sorry about the long wait, but real life interfered in a big way recently. I've also been busy with other projects and am actually having a hard time finishing the next chapter as well. (Guess why.) Thanks to Frodo Girl for the review (why did you remove your story?); and thanks as always to the repeat reviewers for their tremendous encouragement. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Happy Easter!

_Chapter Twelve — Trouble Man_

Despite the loss to the Eagles, the sun still rose the next morning. Quite a few of the TC Williams students were grumbling that they should have been given the day off after the excitement of last night's game, but everyone dragged themselves out of bed and off to school anyway.

Ronnie was in his usual spot, doing his daily _tai chi, when Gerry rolled up. "Hey, Sunshine."_

"Hey, Gerry," Ronnie said. "How are you doing?"

"Not bad," he replied, and chuckled ruefully. "Could be better, though."

"I heard that." As the blond boy turned his body and threw a fist, he noticed that his friend was alone. "Hey, where's Julius? At home licking his wounds?"

"Heck, no!" Gerry protested, sounding more like his usual self. "Not in the way you mean, anyway. Julius is home and resting, but that's because he had quite a game last night." 

"That's right, he did," Ronnie admitted. Big Julius had thrown himself, body and soul, into last night's game. Both body and soul had taken quite a beating.

"He'll be back tomorrow. Hey, Tamsin."

"Hi, Gerry," Tamsin's voice replied. "Good morning." 

Ronnie glanced over his shoulder in the middle of his Single Whip to see her join Gerry. "Hey, Tamsin," he said, smiling at her as he concluded his _tai chi_. "Ready to go in?"

"Oh, thanks a lot, Sunshine," Gerry griped playfully as the blond boy scooped up his books. "Leave _me to freeze my butt off and wait 'til __she gets here before suggesting we go in."_

"I wasn't done when you first arrived," Ronnie bantered back, taking Tamsin's books as well.

"And no one was stopping you from going on ahead by yourself," Tamsin added.

The conspiratorial grins they exchanged weren't lost on Gerry. "Now you're ganging up on me!" he exclaimed, shaking a fist at them as they entered the school building. "Ooh, wait 'til Emma gets here…!"

Ronnie chuckled. "Catch you later, Bertier." He and Tamsin left him to his griping and started toward their lockers.

They reached hers first. "How are you this morning?" she asked as she put together the things she would need for her morning classes.

He smiled. "I'm fine." He was still a little blue, but life went on and Tamsin's concern for his well-being cheered him up considerably. "Really," Ronnie added when she arched a skeptical eyebrow.

She finally smiled and shut her locker door. (It was working fine now.) "Good."

* * *

Michael returned Tamsin's notes that afternoon.

The first thing he did after sauntering into Uncle Jon's classroom was to hold out a sheaf of notebook paper. "Thanks," he said as he sat down next to her.

Tamsin took them back with a polite smile. The pages were precisely aligned and he had probably ironed them, too. Her notes had never returned to her in such good condition before. "You're welcome."

"And in return, you can borrow this." He reached into his knapsack and held something else out to her.

She blinked at the slightly worn copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ in his hand. She'd been dying to read it for ages, but neither she nor Uncle Jon could find a copy. "How did you know?"

Michael smiled crookedly as he reached over and dropped the book onto her desk. "I found this list of books you want to read somewhere in your notes and _One Hundred Years of Solitude was encircled a couple of dozen times."_

Tamsin laughed. The list had been in one of the margins. "Well, thanks," she said as she put the book in her bag. "I'll give this back to you as soon as possible."

"Take your time," he told her with a negligent wave of his hand. "I've read it lots of times." 

Presently, Uncle Jon breezed into the room, loudly announcing a pop quiz, and it was time to buckle down to work. "Is the story any good?" Tamsin asked when class was over.

"I thought it was fascinating," Michael replied as he got up to leave, "but I'll leave you to make up your own mind."

She thanked him again and started getting her own things together when he left. The next time she looked up, Blue was charging toward her, followed by Ronnie and the rest of their friends. "What was that he gave you?" the big black boy demanded, arms akimbo.

"My notes," Tamsin told him. "Without my having to ask for them back, I might add."

The Titans made playful faces at the jibe, but Gerry ignored it. "Is that all?" he asked.

"No," she admitted. "He lent me a book."

"Just a book?" He leveled her with a narrow, steely-eyed stare that did not belong on a boy in a wheelchair. Gerry had probably developed that look on the football field. "What kind of book?"

What was with the Spanish Inquisition routine? "The _Kama Sutra_," she said with a straight face.

_"WHAT?" Rev squawked. Even Ronnie looked stunned._

Tamsin laughed out loud at the comical expressions of confusion and shock arrayed before her. "I'm just kidding!" she said. "Seriously, he lent me _One Hundred Years of Solitude_. Here, see for yourself." She thrust the book at them. "Although I have no idea why I have to prove myself to you."

"Just lookin' out for our man Sunshine's interests, sister," Blue told her cheerfully.

"You guys are nuts," she said as they finally walked out of the classroom, but the amusement in her voice softened her words. Tamsin had spent enough time with the Titans to get used to the (sometimes ridiculous) ways they looked out for each other. "But it would have been cool if he really had lent me the _Kama Sutra, wouldn't it?" she murmured to Ronnie._

He blushed and made a face at her. "Depends on whom you would have used it on."

* * *

"Is your boyfriend still moping about last weekend's game?" Tamsin asked Emma as they pored over the cosmetics counter at Landry's. They were taking advantage of the lull in their school workload to look at what was new in the stores downtown.

"No, not anymore." The blonde girl looked up from the pale blue eye shadow she was inspecting. "How about _yours?"_

She blushed. While she and Ronnie were seeing each other more or less exclusively, she was still having difficulty comprehending the idea that he was her boyfriend. Shouldn't there have been a formal question, or a symbol of their relationship, or something? Maybe the conversation from the Monday after Homecoming had settled the question. Maybe her bracelet did the job of symbolizing their relationship — all of their friends knew that it was a gift from him, anyway. 

Maybe the formalities didn't matter and the important thing was that Ronnie was a guy she liked being with. "No," Tamsin finally answered.

Emma smiled and went back to browsing. The two girls didn't find anything really interesting at the cosmetics counter, but the sale racks at the teen clothing department more than made up for it. Their arms were overflowing with clothes to try on when Petey and Ronnie found them. "Y'all lost?" the blonde girl teased.

"Heck, no!" Petey replied, looking as nonchalant as a boy could look while standing amid racks crammed with girly clothing. "We came here on purpose. Sunshine was lookin' for Tamsin and he figured he'd find her here. What d'ya know?" the black boy grinned. "He was right! You really in touch with your feminine side, ain't you, Sunshine?"

Ronnie rolled his eyes. "Give it a rest, bro." The fruitcake jokes were really getting old.

Tamsin came to his rescue with a scornful snort. "In touch with his feminine side?" she scoffed. "I can't even train him to hold my purse while I'm shopping!"

Emma laughed. "Gerry hides mine behind his back. So, what brings y'all here?"

"I, uh, have to tell Tamsin something," Ronnie told her. "It's kind of important."

"Ooh!" Petey exclaimed in a fruity voice, pretending to swoon with excitement. "Whatever could it be?"

Ronnie chuckled as Tamsin shot him an _I-can't-believe-he's-your-friend look and then dumped her armload of clothes into the black boy's arms. "Could you hold these, please?" she asked sweetly. "And while you're at it, put the dress with the green-and-blue flowers back? I've changed my mind about it — the mid-calf length does _nothing_ for me."_

Emma laughed at the wild look that had entered Petey's eyes. "Don't worry, Petey," the blonde girl consoled him, picking the offending dress out of the pile. "We can pretend that they're mine."

"What's this 'kind of important' thing you want to tell me?" Tamsin asked Ronnie after their friends were out of earshot.

He bit his lip, wondering how to tell her so she wouldn't snap his head off. He'd never had to do this to her before, and wasn't sure how she would react. "Well, it isn't a matter of life and death," he began, flicking a stray lock of hair out of his eyes. 

"That's good to know."

"It's just that something came up and…believe me, it was a tough decision…"

"And it is…?" She was starting to sound impatient, so Ronnie figured he might as well just tell it straight and get it over with.

"I have to cancel our date tomorrow night." The words came out in a rush. "The recruiter from South Carolina called this afternoon to reschedule the dinner we were supposed to have with him tonight," he explained, "and tomorrow is his only other day free."

"Oh." Tamsin nodded. "I see." She didn't sound mad, and she even smiled, but he decided to explain some more just to make sure.

"I don't want you to think that you're not important to me," Ronnie went on, toying nervously with the charm on her bracelet, "but they sound really interested and I—"

"Ronnie." Her smile widened. In fact, she looked like she was trying not to laugh at him. Now, he was _sure she wasn't mad. "It's OK."_

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. This is college we're talking about, after all."

He squeezed her hand, relieved. "Thanks. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You don't have to."

"Well, I want to," he protested mildly. Ronnie smiled as an idea dawned. "Tell you what — I heard Rev say that Cat's brother will be at Maxie's next weekend. Why don't we go watch his band play?" 

Tamsin brightened. She had never been to Maxie's before and was really curious to meet Cat's grandmother, who owned the place. She was probably a very unique woman.

He waggled his eyebrows and nudged her playfully. "Come on…you know you want to…"

She laughed and tried to look coy. "Oh, all right, if you're sure it won't be too much trouble…"

"It won't," he assured her.

"I'll look forward to it, then." She grinned impishly. "But what if another recruiter calls to reschedule?"

Ronnie laughed. "I'll bring him along. Maybe he'll appreciate a good jazz band."

* * *

The next evening, in the great tradition of all girls who were staying home on a Friday night, Tamsin stayed home and washed her hair. She did it every day, of course, but washing one's hair was a time-honored alternative to going out with a boy.

She also called her mother, who was surprised to hear from her. "Isn't this date night?" she asked after Tamsin had said hello.

"Yes, but Ronnie had to cancel. He's meeting with recruiters from the University of South Carolina tonight."

"Did he cancel at the last minute?" her mother asked sharply.

"No, he told me yesterday, right after he found out." She grinned at the memory of the painfully sincere look on his face when he tried to assure her that she was still important to him. "He even groveled."

"Good."

"I'm actually kind of glad to be staying home for a change," Tamsin admitted as she stretched her pajama-clad legs out before her and wiggled her worn-slippered toes. "Dressing up and going out can be tiring, and I've got some things I have to do anyway. I've got some application essays to finish, and there's this _evil_ English paper that I have to start work on…" At the mention of the paper, Uncle Jon looked up from where he was preparing that night's dinner and shot her an unrepentant grin.

"To what other colleges are you applying?"

"I'm finishing the ones for Barnard and Sarah Lawrence so I can mail them next week; and then I need to do one more for Fordham."

"Will they get read?" her mother teased.

Tamsin narrowed her eyes at the receiver in her hand. "Of course they will, Mother. I'm doing pretty well in school — Uncle Jon will vouch for that. Our only worry now is which school will save us the most money."

A melodramatic sigh came over the wire. "Sweetie, we've been _through_ this—"

"I know, I know, money is no object. I just don't want us worrying about tuition on top of our other bills." She swung her foot back and forth and watched her uncle slice red cabbage into lacy circles. "And speaking of bills, Mom — have you paid them?"

As she expected, the question snapped her mother out of the serious discussion about money. "No," was the crisp reply. "I am sitting in total darkness with no food, no heat and no water, communicating with you through mental telepathy, and something is crawling up my leg."

Tamsin laughed. "Sorry, I just had to make sure."

"Well, I can take care of myself. I _did take care of you first before you started taking care of me!"_

Tamsin and her mother exchanged a few more jokes and some local gossip before Uncle Jon took his turn with the phone and Tamsin took over dinner.

She smiled as she swept the cabbage off the cutting board and into a bowl. It had been a good conversation: her mother knew that she was doing well in school, and she knew her mother was all right in New York.

And since her mother was getting along fine by herself, Tamsin thought as she julienned a carrot and added the thin orange sticks to the cabbage, maybe Tamsin could look into going out of state, like maybe to Harvard or Yale, for college. It wouldn't hurt to apply and see if they could grant her a scholarship.

She gave a start as she tossed the cabbage and carrots with bean sprouts. During the course of her reflections on going away to college, Tamsin had the most unsettling realization that she and Uncle Jon would be leaving Alexandria soon.

* * *

The latest edition of _Silhouette, the TC Williams High School literary magazine, was released that Monday. Tamsin, like everyone on the staff, was excited to get a look at the fruit of their labor, but she had to wait until the last period to get her own copy because it was being distributed through the English classes._

A thrill of anticipation shot through her when Uncle Jon entered the classroom carrying copies of _Silhouette. "Good morning, everyone! I've got something special for you today!" He grinned at the class and held up the stack of magazines. "The latest issue of _Silhouette_, which showcases your fellow students' creative writing skills, has been released. I do hope you'll take the time to read it._

"I strongly recommend," Uncle Jon said as he gave each person in the front row enough copies for the people sitting behind them, "that you check out the poem entitled 'Dear John' on page 29. It's written by our very own Tamsin Lee."

Tamsin blushed and acknowledged the polite applause from the class (and the exuberant yells from the Titans), then opened her own copy to page 29. As author of the poem, she knew it inside-out beginning from the day she began it on the bleachers of the TC Williams football stadium while waiting for the Titans to finish practice. She just had to see it (and her name!) in print. 

It was beautiful. 

She floated on a _saw-my-work-in-print_ cloud all through English and even afterward as some of her classmates congratulated and complimented her on her work. Michael told her that her writing was very evocative.

And the Titans asked for her autograph. "So when you're famous and stuck-up," Blue explained, "I can auction this off and make some money off you."

"Why'd you call it 'Dear John'?" Gerry asked as Tamsin signed his copy of _Silhouette_. He grinned at Ronnie, who was standing behind him. "'Dear _Ron' would have been a better title!"_

* * *

_"Yes, it would have been,"_ Tamsin had admitted. 

Ronnie grinned as he remembered the smile and the blush that had accompanied her answer. He rolled over on his bed, knocking a couple of books onto the floor, and read her poem for the millionth time. 

Although the phrase "Dear John" referred to the kind of letter a girl wrote when she wanted to break up with her boyfriend, the poem wasn't about breaking up at all. Instead, it was about how distracting a guy could be for a girl, and Tamsin made that sound like it was the most wonderful thing in the world.

And she practically said that she had written the poem for him. The idea made Ronnie feel funny inside. 

He chuckled. Guys were the ones who were supposed to be writing love poems, he thought as he stared at the Joe Namath poster on the wall across his bed, and the girls were supposed to receive them. How did he wind up in a situation where it was the other way around?

_Simple._ Tamsin wasn't like most girls.

Ronnie's friends hadn't let them hear the end of it after class that day. Alan said that Tamsin should have included a little dedication after the poem. Something like _"To Sunshine with love."_

But she didn't call Ronnie "Sunshine." Gerry said it should have been _"To Ronnie with all my love."_

By then, Tamsin's face was red. She had told them that it was too late for all their suggestions, hoping they would shut up. They, of course, didn't. 

Ronnie burst out laughing when "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" came on his radio. Rev had ended the discussion by suggesting that Tamsin should have dedicated her poem _"To Ronnie, the sunshine of my life."_ His friends had sung the Stevie Wonder song all the way out of the school building.

* * *

Ronnie was late. 

Not disgracefully late, but late enough for Tamsin to notice. He was usually militantly punctual. Col. Bass must have drilled that into him.

She didn't really mind. They had agreed to meet at the coffeehouse around the corner from Maxie's, so she had a warm place to sit and a cup of tea to keep her company. They would be meeting up with Rev, Cat and some of their other friends at the club itself.

Maybe he _was_ bringing a recruiter along, she thought wryly. Her bangle bracelets jingled as she took another sip of tea.

"Hey, Tamsin," a male voice said.

She looked up, expecting to see Ronnie, but it turned out to be Michael, standing by her table with a steaming cup in his hand. "Hi, Michael," she replied.

"Mind if I sit with you?"

Tamsin looked dubiously at the empty chair across her. "I'm kind of waiting for—"

"I'll leave when he shows up."

Well, the place _was_ pretty full. "I guess that's all right, then," she said, shrugging.

"Thanks." Michael sat down and made himself comfortable.

Since he was sitting at the same table, she supposed she had to be sociable. "Hanging out?"

"No, not really," he said. He removed his glasses to wipe the lenses on a shirttail sticking out from under the hem of his ratty black sweater. "I'm waiting for my mom. She works at a health food store quite near here."

"She works at Homegrown & Organic?" It was the only health food store in Alexandria. "That's a great place! We get our brown rice from there."

"Yeah? Cool." Michael chuckled. "Keep doing that — my mom could use the business. How are you liking _One Hundred Years of Solitude?"_

"Oh, it's really interesting. Some parts are really bizarre," Tamsin admitted, "but that seems to be characteristic of South American literature."

"I think it has something to do with them fusing their native mythology with history." Michael took a sip of his coffee. He apparently liked it black. "Right now I'm reading this book called _Letters to A Young Poet. Have you ever read it?"_

"You bet." Uncle Jon had given her a copy when she was ten and just getting into writing. "It's great, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Rilke sure understands what all-consuming passion is about."

She nodded, checking the door for Ronnie. He still hadn't arrived. "Did you know that the guy he was writing to later killed himself?"

His gray eyes widened. "No." He laughed. "So much for 'living the questions.'"

They were talking about the irony of the young poet's suicide when Ronnie arrived. His heart slammed in his chest at the sight of the two of them together and he walked quickly over. "Hey, Tamsin," he said.

Tamsin smiled up at him. "Hi, Ronnie." 

_Well, she looks happy to see me, at least._ Her smile made Ronnie feel better, but only a bit — he hadn't missed the intense expression she had worn while deep in conversation with Michael.

Ronnie remained standing, as the chair that was supposed to be his was still occupied. He then nodded to Michael. "Michael."

"Good day, Sunshine," the other boy replied. 

Tamsin laughed as if he had made the wittiest reply in the world. It made Ronnie's teeth hurt. "I'm sorry I'm late," he told her. "My dad got home a bit behind schedule."

"That's all right."

Ronnie extended the single red rosebud he was carrying toward Tamsin. "This is for you."

She accepted it shyly. "Thank you."

That was when Michael finally caught on. "Oh, you were waiting for _him_?" he asked Tamsin, then jumped out of Ronnie's chair. "Sorry, man, I didn't know."

_What did I have to do, write "She's With ME!" on my forehead?_ "Don't worry about it," Ronnie replied coolly.

The dark-haired boy looked around. "Well, a couple of other tables have freed up," he observed. "Guess I'll go sit elsewhere now. Thanks for letting me sit with you for a while, Tamsin."

To Ronnie's relief, she didn't invite Michael to stay. "You're welcome," she said. "Thanks for keeping me company."

Michael smiled briefly, and then nodded to Ronnie. "See you guys in class."

"Yeah, see you," Ronnie replied as the other boy left and he finally sat down. 

Tamsin sniffed the rose he had given her and smiled at him. "Aren't you going to order anything?"

"Nah. I wound up eating something while waiting for my dad." They were quiet for a while. "So…what was he doing here?" he finally asked.

"Who, Michael?" She glanced over the where Michael was now sitting and shrugged. "I was just sitting here, waiting for you, when he showed up and asked if he could sit with me. The place was pretty full a while ago."

Ronnie nodded. Of course there would be a perfectly innocent explanation for why Tamsin had been sharing a table with Michael "Don't Call Me Mike" Cardinal. "I see."

He was being uncharacteristically succinct, and his smile seemed strained. An unpleasant chill spread through Tamsin. What did he think Michael had been doing? What did Ronnie think _she had been doing when he arrived? "We just talked," she added._

"I'm sure you did."

"He invited himself to sit down," she went on.

"Mm-hmm."

"You don't believe me?"

"Of course I believe you," Ronnie said, startled. He hadn't said he didn't.

To Tamsin's ears, he sounded like he didn't. "Are you sure?"

He met her eyes squarely, disturbed to see the hurt in them. "Yes, I'm absolutely sure." Ronnie laid a reassuring hand over hers. He wasn't quite sure if he could say anything without making a complete ass of himself; at any rate, he could let his actions do his talking for him. "Ready to go?"

There was only a small amount of tea left in her cup, and Tamsin was sure it was stone cold by now. At any rate, she didn't want it anymore. "Yes. Let's go." 

He silently helped her out of her chair and into her coat. They said very little on the way to Maxie's, and just barely managed to smile upon meeting up with their friends inside the nightclub. If Rev, Cat and the others had noticed anything, they didn't remark upon it.

He and Tamsin sat close together, but not touching, at one of the tiny tables near the foot of the stage. They applauded when Maxie, a tall, slender woman who looked like a much older version of Cat, stepped up to introduce Cat's brother Elliot and his band, and again when the band came onstage to play. 

Ronnie tried hard to concentrate on the music, which was pretty good, but his thoughts kept straying to what he had seen in the coffeehouse earlier. This was seeing her with Mr. Graham all over again, back when he didn't know that the teacher was her uncle. _But she's already said that nothing happened, he told himself. __So drop it! _

Tamsin was having trouble concentrating, too. This was the most serious disagreement they had had to date. Part of her was ready to just drop the whole thing, as her conscience was 100% clear, but what had happened earlier with Michael was obviously still bothering Ronnie. She couldn't help wishing that there were some way she could convince him that nothing happened, but there was nothing left to explain.

The band swung into a rousing version of "Jazzman" and Ronnie felt a tremendous rush of relief when her hand slipped into his. He squeezed it and leaned toward her. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He wanted to say more, but he had already made a big enough ass of himself without even talking. 

Tamsin squeezed his hand back and leaned her head on his shoulder. "It's OK," she said softly. "You're entitled to be a grouchy old bear every once in a while."

"Sure I do." He managed a hoarse chuckle. "You get to be one every month, after all."

She shook in silent laughter and Ronnie pressed a kiss to her temple, feeling better than he had since the evening started.


	15. Drift Away

**Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. This chapter borrows its title from the 1973 Dobie Gray song. Some very rich people own the Super Bowl; the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of _Star Trek_, owns the Vulcan Death Grip; and the poem "Sea Breeze" belongs to Stephane Mallarmé. I only own Tamsin and her uncle, Michael and his mother, Ryan, Eddie and Ma Rose.**

**Author's Notes: It occurred to me that Chapter 13 was getting a bit too long, so I decided to cut it up and post the first part. Deepest thanks, as always, to everyone who has been following this story. Thank you for your continued interest, and your patience. I'm sorry about the long wait — besides this, I have a couple of Harry Potter fics going, a David Eddings story that I began just recently, and at least two more _RtT_ plot bunnies hopping around in my head! I really should finish what's on my figurative plate before starting anything new…**

_Chapter Thirteen — Drift Away_

The argument was resolved, but it left Ronnie with a niggling feeling of unease.

It lasted through the rest of the weekend, disrupting his enjoyment of Super Bowl VII, and right into the next week. Even his friends began to notice. "Why the storm clouds, Sunshine?" Petey finally asked that Tuesday afternoon, as some of the Titans worked out in the TC Williams weight room, which was just off the gym.

Ronnie shrugged under the barbell slung across his shoulders. "Nothing important, man."

The black boy snorted skeptically. "Nothing important? You've been in a funk these past few days!"

"It's got to be something major," Ryan noted. "Your face is so long it's brushing the floor." The other boys laughed as he put on his saddest, droopiest expression.

"It's nothing," Ronnie insisted, grunting his way through another lunge.

Petey studied him intently. He looked ready to play another round of Guess What's Bothering Sunshine. "Does it have anything to do with…Tamsin?"

_"Dingdingding! That is cor-RECT!"_ Gerry proclaimed as Ronnie's face went stony.

"You'd better shut up before I drop this barbell on your foot," the blond boy threatened.

Gerry arched an eyebrow at him. "Go ahead. It won't hurt."

Eddie stepped in between the two boys. "Look, Sunshine," he said reasonably, which was no mean feat considering he was risking getting a barbell dropped on his foot, "we're bound to find out what's bothering you sooner or later, so why don't you tell us about it now?"

"He has a point," Ryan piped up, looking expectantly at Ronnie. "And if you tell us about it now, maybe we can help you keep it from becoming a real problem in the future."

"That was mighty deep of you, brother!" Petey praised.

The other boy grinned cockily. "Thanks."

Ronnie rolled his eyes in defeat and set down his barbell. There was no point in keeping it around if he wasn't going to drop it on anyone's foot. "It's nothing, really," he said as he picked up a pair of dumbbells and began a set of arm curls. "We just had a small misunderstanding last weekend. We've cleared it up," he added, "but I'm still a bit shook up about it."

"What happened?" Petey asked.

"Well…I saw her with another guy."

_"WHAT?"_ his friends all squawked.

"She wasn't really _with him," Ronnie clarified. "Tamsin and I agreed to meet someplace last weekend and she got there before I did. Someone was just sitting with her while she waited for me." Ronnie made a wry face. "According to Tamsin, __he invited himself to sit down."_

"That was gutsy," Ryan said, raising his arm to do some triceps extensions. "Who was it?"

"Michael Cardinal."

The dumbbells in Gerry's hands dropped, and so did his jaw. _"That pipsqueak?"_

"How do you know him?" Ryan asked.

"He's in our English class." Gerry shook his head. "Michael Cardinal! I can't believe it!"

Ryan snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah, I heard he's supposed to be some kind of genius or something." He made a face. "Well, Sunshine, for what it's worth, I think you and Tamsin make a better couple than the two of them ever would. He's kind of a downer."

"There you go, Sunshine!" Petey declared. "Tamsin's a serious girl, you know, and if this guy's a downer, she'll just be miserable. Tamsin needs someone light and cheery, to twinkle around her—"

Ronnie narrowed his eyes at the black boy. "I don't twinkle."

"Well, the bottom line is that you balance her out perfectly and he doesn't, all right?"

"Plus you're a good kisser," Gerry added.

Even Ronnie had to laugh at that. "Glad to know I have your seal of approval, bro."

"Feel better now?" Petey asked him.

The blond boy grinned. "Yeah, thanks."

Just then, Michael entered the gym with a couple of other boys. Ronnie and his friends saw him come in through the plate glass window set in one wall of the weight room. "Speaking of the devil," Ryan observed.

They watched Michael shoot some hoops with his friends. He wasn't very good, and he was on the small, sort of skinny side to boot. Petey snickered when the basketball took a bad hop and knocked Michael's glasses askew. "You can take him easily, Sunshine. Ol' Mikey won't be able to go chasing after Tamsin if his legs are broken."

"Hey," Ronnie protested, "I don't pick on guys smaller than me."

"Unless you've got good reason to."

Unlike Ronnie, Ray Budds wasn't averse to picking on guys smaller than him. He and the rest of the wrestling team had been practicing in one corner of the gym when Michael arrived. Presently, Ray was busy razzing the dark-haired boy for some reason or another. "Look at Coach Tyrell," Eddie noted, nodding toward where the Titans' former defensive line coach was watching the wrestling team, which he was now coaching. "He ain't doing a thing to stop Ray."

As it turned out, he didn't have to. Michael ignored Ray for as long as he could, and then jumped on the stocky older boy when his patience had apparently run out. "Whoa!" Ryan and Gerry exclaimed when Ray went down. 

People gathered around them right after that, so Ronnie and his friends couldn't see what was going on, but when the crowd broke up later, they saw Ray being helped away from Michael. Their former teammate was holding his shoulder and wincing in pain. Michael, on the other hand, looked perfectly fine, if a little rumpled.

"It looks like he knows the secret of the Vulcan Death Grip," Eddie noted.

They watched Michael stalk back to his friends. "OK," Petey finally said, "so he'll put up one hell of a fight. Don't worry. If Mikey gives you any problems, we'll jump in and give you a hand."

* * *

Ever since he showed up at the coffeehouse last weekend, it was as if Michael was all over the place.

Not literally, of course, but he just kept cropping up wherever Tamsin was. It was as if he was always walking down the same hall as she, or just ahead of her in the lunch line, or in the library the same time she was there. 

She definitely wasn't following him around, and she was sure Michael wasn't stalking her, either. So what was it that made their paths cross all the time?

Tamsin was again pondering that question that Wednesday afternoon when Uncle Jon paired them up to do an oral report on the Stephane Mallarmé poem "Sea Breeze." She was taking note of the deadline for the report when the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. 

For some reason she was always aware of when Michael was looking at her. Maybe small animals felt the same way when they knew a panther was stalking them. His eyes reminded Tamsin of a jungle cat's — kind of thrillingly predatory.

Sure enough, he was looking at her when she glanced in his direction. "So, we've got a week and a half to do this thing," he said.

Tamsin looked down at her copy of the poem that Uncle Jon had assigned them. "Mm-hmm."

"That could go by pretty fast. We'd better start work on this soon."

She nodded. "Yes, we should."

"How about meeting after class so we can start discussing it?"

The question startled her. "What, today?"

"Yeah," Michael said. "Maybe we could, I don't know, go someplace, have some coffee, and talk about the poem."

"Oh." At the mention of coffee, Tamsin instantly recalled the scene in the coffeehouse last Saturday night. She glanced briefly at Ronnie, who had been looking at her, too. "Well, that would be nice," she said finally, "but I already have plans for this afternoon."

He glanced at Ronnie, too. "I see."

"I don't have a date or anything," she babbled, wondering at the same time why she felt the need to explain herself to him. "I was planning to use this afternoon to work on a Social Studies paper."

"How about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow's…fine," she admitted. "But can we meet in the library instead? I can't really work with, uh, coffee around. I mean, distractions…you know." In truth, she did her best work when there was food and music around, but she wanted to make it clear that they were meeting only for schoolwork. It wasn't supposed to be fun. "And in the library we have all the reference books at our disposal."

He smiled. "You've got a point. So…I'll see you tomorrow in the library? After class?"

"Yeah, sure."

* * *

Sea Breeze 

How sad the flesh! and there's no more to read

Escape, far off! I feel that somewhere birds

Are drunk to be amid strange spray and skies!

Nothing, not those old gardens eyes reflect

Can now restrain this heart steeped in the sea

Oh, nights! Nor the lone brightness of my lamp

On the blank paper which its whiteness shields

Nor the young wife, her baby at breast

I shall depart! Steamer with swaying masts,

Raise anchor for exotic wilderness!

Tedium, desolated by cruel hope,

Has faith still in great fluttering farewells!

And, it may be, the masts, inviting storms

Are of the sort that wind inclines to wrecks

Lost, with no mast, no mast, or verdant isle…

But listen, oh my heart, the sailors sing! 

"Well, the narrator is obviously yearning for change," Michael said after they had contemplated the poem for a while.

Tamsin nodded, writing notes quickly on a blank sheet of paper before her. "He envies the birds who get to go wherever they want, whenever they want."

"And he's willing to leave the comforts of home just to be somewhere else."

"Look at this." She tapped her pen on the appropriate line. "'Old gardens eyes' — doesn't that make you think of old ladies gossiping? Like they're talking over their hedges or something?"

Michael gave a husky chuckle. "Yeah, it does. That's a great image."

She turned to look at him. "So it's like the narrator doesn't care—"

"Hey there, Miss Tamsin!" a voice blared in her ear. "What's up?"

Tamsin jumped, startled, and whipped around to see Petey hanging over the back of her chair. "We _were_ working on a report for English before you decided to try and give me a heart attack," she told him.

"'We?' Who's 'we'?" The black boy did a comedic double take before finally noticing Michael sitting right beside Tamsin. "Oh! Hey, _Mikey_!" Petey greeted the dark-haired boy with a comradely slug on the shoulder. "So you and Tamsin here are English partners, huh?"

"Yes," Michael replied, rubbing his shoulder.

"That's cool. Miss Tamsin here is a really smart chick—I mean, _woman," Petey amended hastily when Tamsin shot him a look. "Girl. Lady. Young lady. Whatever."_

She couldn't help but laugh at how a big guy like him could be afraid of someone like her. Maybe it was a result of his friendship with Ronnie. "Thank you, Petey. Now go away before the librarian comes after you."

"Y'all behave now!" Petey admonished before he did go away.

"Sorry about that," Tamsin mumbled as she turned back to the task at hand.

"No problem," Michael replied.

"I hope Petey didn't hit you too hard. He can be kind of…exuberant."

"I'll live." He looked at her intently, the wire rims of his eyeglasses glinting in the afternoon light. "So, you were saying something about 'old gardens eyes'?"

She blinked. "Uh, yeah, I was. Like I said, it makes me think of gossipy old ladies — you know, the so-called pillars of society who get together and talk about people behind their backs…anyway, for me it's like they represent social convention, and the narrator wants to get out of where he is really badly that he's willing to flout them."

Michael smiled. "That's really good. Graham will love that. And don't forget to use the word 'flout.'"

Tamsin laughed and wrote it down.

"What's the joke, guys?" another gratingly familiar male voice asked.

She looked up to see Alan walking by. "Nothing, Alan," she told him. "We were just talking about the report we're doing for English."

"Really?" The blond boy drew nearer. "What have you got so far?"

"Just a few ideas. Why are you asking? Didn't you get a different poem?"

"Yeah, but I want to know how you're doing!" he told her, his eyes wide. "Is it a crime to check up on your friends' progress and see if they need any help? What do you think, _Mikey_?"

Tamsin rolled her eyes. It was starting to seem as if Ronnie's friends had taken it upon themselves to chaperone her library session with Michael. "Thank you for your concern, Alan, but we're doing just fine. We'll let you know if we need any help, OK?"

"OK. If you need me, I'll be right over there."

"Your boyfriend has some very, er, helpful friends," Michael observed when Alan had gone to sit at a table just a few yards away.

"Yeah," Tamsin agreed wryly. "They look out for each other, and they look out for me, too."

"I guess they see you as one of them by virtue of association."

They tried to get back to work, but just moments after Alan had left, Gerry wheeled by with Emma by his side to leave a football magazine with her. "Sunshine's been wanting to borrow this," he explained, "and I figured you could pass it along to him since you're sure to see each other after this — aren't you?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm going straight home by myself after I'm done here," she told him, hard-pressed to keep the impatience from her voice.

"Well, hang on to it anyway. Chances are, you'll be the first to see him tomorrow."

"Don't forget our double date tomorrow night!" Emma chirped as she left with Gerry.

Tamsin shoved the magazine into her notebook. "I am so sorry about this, Michael."

Michael waved away her apology. "No, _I'm_ sorry. Meeting this afternoon was my idea."

"Well, _your friends aren't here disrupting everything."_

He shrugged. "Anyway, how about a rain check?"

"Sure." She narrowed her eyes at Alan, who ducked behind a thick book that looked to be upside-down. "I don't think we'll get much work done if we decide to carry on today."

The dark-haired boy nodded and began to gather up his things. "Guess there's no point to hanging around here, then."

"Yeah, I might as well go home, too. It's my turn to cook dinner tonight."

More than a few pairs of eyes were trained on Tamsin and Michael as they got up and made ready to leave. She gave the Titans one final eye roll before walking out of the library. "Are you taking the bus home?" she asked as they walked down the hall.

"No, my mom's picking me up," Michael replied, not sounding the least bit embarrassed about it.

As it turned out, she was waiting right outside when they stepped out of the school building. "Over here, babe!" a woman called out, waving at him from the front window of a Volkswagen van. 

"Wanna meet my mom?" Michael mumbled.

Tamsin smiled. He hadn't been embarrassed by the fact that his mother was picking him up, but the loud greeting did the trick. She could empathize; her own mother, being an actress, could project her voice very well, too. "Sure."

Michael's mother was thin, with short-cropped red hair and a sharp nose. She was wearing long, dangly earrings and sunglasses that made it impossible to see the color of her eyes. "Studying all done, babe?" she asked in a cheerful voice when Michael and Tamsin drew near.

"Yeah, for today, anyway," Michael replied. "Oh, Mom, this is Tamsin Lee. We're working on the English report together. Tamsin, this is my mom."

"Good afternoon, ma'am," Tamsin said shyly.

The woman smiled at her. "Pleased to meet you, honey; and call me 'Annette,' will you? 'Ma'am' makes me feel positively _ancient_."

She laughed. Her mother hated being called 'ma'am,' too. "All right."

"Can we take you anywhere, Tamsin?" Annette asked.

"Oh, no, thank you, uh, Annette. My house is just one bus ride from here."

"Maybe next time, then," Michael's mother said good-naturedly. "Well, we'd better get going. Get in the car, Michael."

"Yes, Mom. See you, Tamsin," Michael said before walking around the van and getting into the passenger's seat.

"See you," Tamsin echoed, rubbing her shoulder where he had touched her.

* * *

_"Aaaaand they're out of here!" Ronnie declared in a ballpark-announcer voice as Tamsin's envelopes slid into the mailbox._

"Well, that's the last of them," she said, sighing as he put his arm around her.

He leaned down to give her a comforting kiss, not caring in the least that they were standing on a busy street corner on a Saturday afternoon. "Hey, don't worry, I'm sure at least one of them will come through for you."

"I hope so. I don't want to think that I spent all that time and money for nothing!"

"Then don't think about it." Ronnie smiled down at her and tugged on her hand. "Come on, let's go get some ice cream."

"Ice cream and hot chocolate at the same time?" Ma Rose exclaimed when they had entered her diner and placed their order. "Make your mind up, honey child — do you want to warm up or cool down?"

"Come on, Ma Rose," Ronnie said, turning on what Tamsin called his "winning grin," "you know we can't resist your homemade ice cream even when the weather's so cold that the ice cream is harder outside the freezer than it is inside."

The matronly black woman gave him a baleful look over the rims of her bifocals, but her lips were thin with suppressed mirth. It was the same kind of look that Tamsin gave him when he used the grin on her, so he knew he had won.

"You are so bad," Tamsin told him as they walked to their usual booth near the jukebox.

"But you love me anyway," he bantered back, still flashing the Grin.

"You are also very bright and chipper today."

"Why shouldn't I be? It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I'm with you." 

"Stop, you're making me blush." And she was indeed blushing. She always did when he used the Grin too long on her. (And maybe his talk about her loving him had something to do with it as well.)

Presently, Ma Rose arrived with their sundaes and hot chocolate. "Here you go," she said, serving each of them in turn. 'Dig in — but don't mix up the hot and the cold too much or you'll give yourselves stomach aches!" 

"Thanks, Ma Rose." As the owner of the diner shuffled away, Ronnie used his spoon to transfer the marshmallow cream from his hot chocolate to Tamsin's.

Tamsin smiled at the double pile of pillowy white stuff now melting in her cup. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied, and then tackled his ice cream. Ma Rose's had to have the best chocolate ice cream he had ever tasted. "This is nice, isn't it?"

"It's nice to be able to relax after all that schoolwork and those damn essays," she agreed.

Thoughts of the English report — and of Tamsin and Michael being partners on the English report — flickered across Ronnie's mind and he resolutely pushed them away. It was time to leave behind whatever had happened during the past week. He knew he wasn't in the best of moods for most of it and he was anxious to make it up to Tamsin. "Yeah," he said, and reached out to take her hand. It was warm from holding her hot chocolate. "I missed you."

Tamsin smiled back. "I missed you, too."

They ate in companionable silence, pausing only to change the song on the jukebox. Ma Rose's jukebox only had blues and Motown records on it, but they didn't mind. (It was still kind of hard to have a proper date when the music in the background reminded Tamsin of her mother, though.)

After the ice cream, Ronnie suggested a walk in the park. It was a good afternoon for it. "It's getting a bit warmer," he noted.

Tamsin looked skywards to feel the sunlight on her face. Her yellow knit hat made him think of a thirsty sunflower. "Thank goodness," she said. "Winter can get really dreary when it goes on for too long."

"I don't know about that," Ronnie replied. "It's never too long for me. I guess I've spent too many years in warm places."

"I guess."

"Besides, there are lots of fun things to do in the snow. Like this!" he said as he scooped some up and let it drop with a _splat_ on her head.

"What the…? _Ronnie!" Tamsin sputtered, getting some of her own and chasing him around with it before she gave up and tried to catch her breath instead. "No fair!" she wheezed after him. "You're too…whatever!"_

Ronnie ran, laughing, until he was several yards away, but when he realized she wasn't still running after him, he came right back. "Hey, are you OK?"

She sidestepped him neatly and shoved him into a snowdrift. "I am now!" she chortled.

"Oh, shit! You little…! Come here!" He came up with another handful of snow, which he proceeded to send down her back.

"Stop it!" Tamsin yelped. "It's not fair, you're bigger and faster and meaner than me! I got more snow on you than you did on me, though," she added smugly when he finally stopped to let her shake snow out of her clothes.

"And I'm supposed to be meaner than you?" Ronnie chuckled, dusting off the back of her jacket. "You're going to need to warm up again."

"Oh, don't worry about that." She smiled up at him, her nose and cheeks pink from the cold and the activity. "I'm quite warm enough already."

"Well, we still probably shouldn't be hanging around out here anyway." He grinned and kissed her before taking her hand. Tamsin tasted like strawberry ice cream. "Come on, let's go to the bookstore."


	16. Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans — and Ronnie's English partner, Alison ;-) — belong to themselves and the fictitious characters from the film Remember the Titans belong to Disney. The chapter title belongs to Mac Davis, the quote at the end of the chapter to Carole King and Silhouette to Langston Hughes. I only own Tamsin, her mother and uncle, and some of her friends. 

**Author's Notes: I finally finished this chapter :D Sorry about the wait. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Deidre, Angel and the repeat reviewers for all the great feedback!!**

Chapter Fourteen — Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me 

It had been a fragmented weekend. 

Tamsin was very glad that she was able to spend some time with Ronnie after having been so busy during the past week, but she still couldn't stop thinking about the strange awareness that came over her whenever Michael was near. She knew when he was in the same room as she, knew when he was looking at her, knew when he was coming her way. It was disturbing.

She thought the English assignment would be the last of it, but then she found out that afternoon that Michael had joined the _Silhouette_ staff. The editors were only too happy to have him after he showed them samples of his work that were published in a Seattle magazine. "Melissa looks like she's recruited the blue-chip rookie of the season," Liz laughed in the girls' room after the latest staff meeting. "I can't blame her, though — I mean, he's been published in a real magazine with paying subscribers and everything!"

"That's quite a coup for someone his age," Tamsin agreed.

"Yeah, but it's no surprise given his IQ. I heard it's rated above 'Superior.'"

Tamsin's ears pricked up for some reason. "Is it?" she asked nonchalantly.

"That's what I heard. He acts like it, too. We have Chemistry and Social Studies together and the teachers just love him."

She gave a funny little laugh. "That sounds creepy."

Liz gave her a playful slug on the shoulder. "You know what I mean."

"Do the students love him, too?"

The younger girl looked confused. "What?"

Tamsin blushed. She could not believe she was pumping Liz for information on Michael. "You know…do they think of him as a nerd or something? Does he have any friends?" _Does he have any girlfriends? I can't believe I'm asking this!_

Liz shrugged. "Well, the people in class are pretty polite to him, but I don't see him hanging out with anyone in particular." She then chuckled. "Robin thinks he's cute."

"He's not bad-looking."

"Yeah, and he's smart, too. I guess he's pretty cute," Liz finally admitted, "but he's not my type."

"Oh?" Tamsin asked as they finally left the girls' room. They had stayed inside a bit longer than usual for some reason. "And what is your type?"

"Hey, Liz," a male voice said presently. "Ready to go?"

It was Ryan. He was standing out in the hall, looking uncharacteristically uncertain. A dull flush stole over his cheeks when he saw that Liz wasn't alone. "Hey, Tamsin."

"Hi, Ryan," Tamsin replied. She looked on in amazement when the blond boy, his face now flaming, took her friend's hand. 

"Uh, do you need a ride anywhere?" he asked her.

She grinned and shook her head. This was unbelievable and yet somehow so right. "No, thank you."

"See you tomorrow, then."

"Yeah, see you. Take care." Tamsin smiled at her friend. "'Bye, Liz."

Liz shot her a sheepish grin. "I couldn't believe it, either," she said.

* * *

There were many familiar faces in the library that Thursday as Uncle Jon's students prepared for the oral reports they would be giving in class the next day. It was a good thing that she and Michael had begun their research early, Tamsin thought as she said hi to Blue for the fifth time in the past half-hour. With all of Ronnie's friends dropping by to check on her, they would not have been able to get much done if they had decided to cram like many others were doing. "It was a great idea to research about the social situation at the time and see whether it fit the sentiment of the poem," she complimented Michael.

He smiled. "Thanks. Hopefully, Mr. Graham will eat it up."

"He does appreciate it if you go the extra mile on an assignment. So, I will be talking about the interpretation of the poem on a personal level, and you'll be doing the thing about the social situation?"

"That's right."

"I'd better mention it in the beginning of the report. To show teamwork or something."

"Good idea," Michael said as he watched her make a note on her index card. "I think this is going to be a great presentation."

Tamsin smiled. "So do I." She put down her pen and stretched her cramped fingers. "Well, I'd say we're done, wouldn't you?"

"And with plenty of time to spare," he agreed. "Hey, how about hanging out someplace? You know, to celebrate the completion of our report?"

She blushed and shifted uneasily in her seat. "Uh, our report won't be done until tomorrow, when we actually present it."

"So, how about we go hang out someplace tomorrow?"

"Oh, I shouldn't," she blurted out. "I mean I couldn't."

"Why not? Are you on a diet?" Michael regarded her intently. "You don't need one, you know."

"No, it's not that," she stammered. "I—"

Just then, a very familiar form materialized by their table. "Hey, Tamsin. Hey, _Mike."_

"Hi, Ronnie." Tamsin smiled brightly up at the blond boy and at his English partner. "Hi, Alison."

"Hi, Tamsin," the brown-haired girl replied with a smile. "Finished with your report?"

"Yeah, just about."

"Lucky you. We still have quite a bit to do."

"We'll be done in plenty of time, though," Ronnie added.

Tamsin smiled and patted his arm. "Of course you will."

He grinned at her, and then glanced at Michael, who had been watching the exchange. "Hey, listen," Ronnie said to Tamsin, "are you still coming to dinner at our house tomorrow?" He arched an eyebrow. "My mom's been cooking since Monday and she'll be really upset if you just suddenly canceled!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," she assured him, letting her hand slide down his arm to squeeze his hand.

He grinned and squeezed back. "Good."

* * *

The next day, February 2nd, was Ground Hog Day. On the radio, it was announced that a ground hog had ventured out of its hole and not been frightened of its shadow, signifying that an end to winter was nigh. "Thank God," Gerry remarked as he wheeled to English class with his friends that afternoon. "I was getting sick of sticking to the cold metal on my wheelchair."

"Ouch." Tamsin winced sympathetically. "What _I_ don't like is the static. I can barely touch anything."

The Titans chuckled and Ronnie grinned. Just moments ago, she had snatched her hand back from Ronnie with a little hiss of pain. "Stop trying to pin it on the static, Tamsin!" Alan joked. "Why don't you just admit that there are real sparks between you and Sunshine?"

"It's not just Ronnie," she told him. "I can't touch _anything_ without a spark jumping out at me. It must be my electrifying personality."

They were laughing when they entered the classroom and Uncle Jon smiled at the sight of them. "Ready to give your reports?" he asked brightly.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Blue replied. "But that doesn't mean you can make us go first, though."

Uncle Jon chuckled as the final bell rang. "Noted. All right, everyone," he said to the class, "please take your seats so that we may begin."

"Good luck," Ronnie told Tamsin, touching her hand before following his friends to their seats in the back row.

Michael gave her a small, reassuring smile as she took her own seat next to him. "We'll do just fine."

"I know," she replied as Uncle Jon began calling pairs forward to give their reports. 

Ronnie and Alison were called on first to deliver their report on Sylvia Plath's "Mirror." Tamsin was happy to note that they sounded prepared even though they had been rushing to finish their research yesterday afternoon. She smiled and led the applause when they were done, hoping that she and Michael would sound just as good when their turn came.

Modesty aside, their report turned out even better than Tamsin had expected. They had outlined their report and so each had a good idea of what the other was going to say. They switched off effortlessly, as synchronized as a pair of flying trapeze artists.

Tamsin stood back as Michael took over. She was glowing from what she felt had been a damn good speech. She was sure that she had covered everything and her audience had laughed all her jokes.

Michael wasn't making any jokes, but he spoke confidently, barely glancing at the 3x5's in his hand. He moved well, too. Tamsin watched him pace behind the teacher's table, exuding this unbelievable energy. He would make a good actor, she thought. She imagined him on Broadway. Perhaps he would write as well as star in a play that would change the world. 

Perhaps she could help him with his lines.

Just then, Tamsin caught sight of Ronnie grinning proudly at her. She managed a smile in return, embarrassed by her thoughts.

* * *

That night, Tamsin had dinner at the Basses' as planned.

"It _is getting a bit warmer," Ronnie observed as he escorted Tamsin up the frozen driveway to the Basses' front door._

She laughed. "Behold the power of suggestion." But in truth, the weather was no longer as dry as it had been a few days ago. There was a definite hint of moisture, of thawing, in the air.

They reached the front door and Ronnie opened it to let her through. "Hey, Mom, Dad, we're here," he hollered as he helped Tamsin out of her coat and hung it on a peg in the hall closet. 

Col. and Mrs. Bass appeared as Ronnie was putting away his own coat. "Good evening," Tamsin greeted them politely.

"Hello there, Tamsin," Col. Bass replied. "Happy Ground Hog Day."

"Happy Ground Hog Day," she echoed with a smile, and proffered the covered dish she was holding to Ronnie's mother. "This is for you. Thank you for inviting me to dinner."

"Oh, you shouldn't have," Mrs. Bass told her. "It's always a pleasure having you here."

Ronnie took a deep breath as they walked toward the living room. The scents of spicy meat, onions and cinnamon blended together with a dozen others into a combination that made his mouth water. "Dinner sure smells good, Mom."

"Thank you, dear." His mother smiled at him, then at Tamsin. "I hope you like Mexican food, Tamsin."

"I haven't really had it," she admitted, "but I'm always willing to try something new."

"Good for you," Col. Bass praised. "Now, Ronnie, here, was quite the picky eater when he was younger…"

They sat down to a dinner of guacamole, chicken enchiladas, and sweet corn salad. A platter of fried "elephants' ears" pastries waited on the sideboard. "Well, I must say that it's very nice to see you again," Mrs. Bass said as she passed Tamsin the salad. "We haven't seen you around much lately."

"Well, we've all been rather busy," Tamsin replied as she spooned some onto her plate. "Besides finishing up on college applications, we had a lot of schoolwork." 

"You were saying something about an English report the other day," Col. Bass remarked to his son. "How did that go?"

"Pretty good," Ronnie replied. "It wasn't anything major — we just had to report in class about a poem Mr. Graham assigned us, that's all." He smiled at Tamsin. "Tamsin's group gave the best one."

She blushed at the compliment. "Yours was very good, too."

"Yeah, well, yours was impressive." The words kind of stuck in his craw because he was in a way saying something nice about Michael Cardinal, but he got them out nonetheless. "It was a great idea to apply your poem to the social situation at the time it was written."

"We just got lucky that they fit together so well."

Mrs. Bass smiled and helped herself to another enchilada. "Have you decided on a major, Tamsin?" she asked.

Tamsin smiled and shrugged. "Right now it's a toss-up between English and maybe something in business. My mom says either one is fine, but I'm trying to look for a major that's both interesting and practical."

"Ronnie is thinking of majoring in business, too," Col. Bass said. He grinned. "But I guess you already know that."

* * *

"You didn't have to drive me home," Tamsin said as the Basses' car pulled up outside her house after dinner that night.

"Sure I did," Ronnie replied. "We can't have you going home by yourself at this time of night."

He helped her out of the car and they started up the front walk, toward the porch light that shone warmly in the still, silent night. The patches of snow on the lawn, reflecting the golden light, glittered like piles of yellow diamonds. "It _is getting warmer," Tamsin remarked._

Ronnie chuckled and took her hand to keep her from slipping. "You could have agreed with me when I said so earlier."

"Well, I didn't feel it earlier. It must have been all the chili." 

"Oops, sorry about that. My dad and I like it really spicy."

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I wasn't complaining, even though it _was really spicy." They came to a stop outside her door. "Well, good night."_

"Good night." He leaned down and kissed her, lips moving warmly over hers, cupping her cheek tenderly with his free hand. He pulled away only when the porch light started blinking, a sure sign that Mr. Graham was just inside, waiting for Tamsin to come in. "Sweet dreams."

"After a kiss like that, I'm sure I will."

Ronnie chuckled. "Me, too. I'll call you tomorrow, all right?" He smiled when she nodded. "We really should start planning for Valentine's Day. It's coming up soon."

"Yeah, OK." 

* * *

Tamsin called New York the next evening and was startled at how tired her mother sounded. "Mom! You sound terrible!"

"I had a really tough rehearsal today, Tamsin," Diana replied wearily.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Were you sleeping when I called? Maybe I should call back tomorrow when you're more rested."

"That won't be necessary, sweetie. I can stand to talk for a while."

She twisted the telephone cord around her index finger. It snagged briefly on the charm bracelet Ronnie had given her. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired, sweetie, but very glad to hear from you."

Tamsin smiled. "Tell me about that play you're in right now."

"Ah, I'm afraid it's still off-Broadway," her mother told her, "but it's very interesting. It's a hospital drama and I play the star patient."

"Well, you've always been good at playing sick, helpless people," she laughed, remembering the countless mornings her mother had spent draped on the couch, nursing a hangover from last night's wild party. 

"Very funny."

"I was just kidding, Mom."

"I know, sweetie."

She drummed her fingers on the countertop all through the short pause that followed. "Are you sure you're feeling all right, Mom? I really think I should just call back another time and let you get some rest."

"It's up to you."

Tamsin cringed. Her mother sounded terrible. "I guess I'll just call you back tomorrow. I'm feeling really guilty right now."

"And besides, Mr. Wonderful might also be trying to call you?"

She laughed. "That's right, but I was thinking more about you than I was about him back there."

"Someday I really should speak to that boy. Goodness knows how far you two have gone and I haven't even met him."

"You barely missed anything, Mom," Tamsin replied, her cheeks red. "So, I guess I'll talk to you some other time, OK?"

"All right, darling."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

_We really should start planning for Valentine's Day. It's coming up soon._

For a long time afterward, Ronnie would remember what he had said that night on her doorstep and kick himself because, as it happened, they never made it to Valentine's Day.

It all fell apart on the evening of February 10th, when he had taken her to the Hill for the second and last time.

"Ronnie," Tamsin murmured as her head bumped gently against the Charger's passenger-side window, "I think we should stop."

He chuckled and nipped her earlobe. "You think? You're not sure?"

She laughed shakily and tried to twist away. "No, I'm sure. We don't want another cop to come by and _really_ get an eyeful, now, do we?"

"No, I guess not." Ronnie sighed and sat back, holding her quietly until his heartbeat returned to normal. "This is getting harder and harder," he observed, running a lazy hand over her back. She stayed rigid in his arms. "Hey, you're tense. Is anything wrong?"

"No," Tamsin replied, slipping out of his embrace. "Not really."

He watched her turn away from him. "Tamsin, something's wrong. Is this about your mom?"

She shook her head as she began drawing a flower on the misty windowpane. "I spoke to her last weekend and she sounded tired and I _am_ worried about her, but that's not it."

"What is it, then? Talk to me. Maybe I can help."

She laughed again. Her laughter sounded unusually high and shrill to both of them. "No, you can't."

"Well, sometimes it helps just to talk about it, and I'm willing to listen."

"Are you?"

"Yes, Tamsin; now, what is it that's bothering you?"

Tamsin was silent for a moment. He heard her take a deep breath before she turned to look at him. "What if I told you I wanted to go out with another guy?"

Ronnie's entire chest seized up. It was just like the time Kip Tyler had tackled him during the game against Groveton earlier in the school year. No, this was worse. But he forced himself to take a deep breath and release it slowly. "Ah."

"Yeah." She dropped her gaze and fidgeted with the charm on the bracelet he had given her. "Ronnie, I'm not unhappy. You've been—you _are_ wonderful, and I care about you a lot. It's just that you're my first…my first boyfriend, and…" 

It was the first time she had ever called him her boyfriend and it had to be when she was dumping him. "And you want a chance to play the field," he said.

"I want to be able to make an informed decision."

Ronnie bowed his head. A smile was tugging at the corners of his mouth despite himself because he remembered that phrase from Ms. Johnson's Social Studies class. "Everyone has that right, especially when it comes to choosing the people they're going to spend the rest of their lives with. I'm not saying you and I are going to do that, of course, but—anyway, I know what you mean."

There was a tense silence. "So…are you letting me go?" Tamsin ventured.

"Well, I can't make you stay."

"Ronnie, please don't be mad at me. I want us to still be friends."

"I'm not mad, Tamsin," he assured her. "And I want us to still be friends, too."

"I'm really sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. You didn't do anything wrong."

There was a clinking sound and when Ronnie looked up, he saw that she was removing her bracelet. "I can give this back to you, if you want," Tamsin offered.

"No. Keep it." He reached out to refasten it around her wrist. "It's a gift…from one friend to another."

She smiled tremulously and squeezed his hand. "Thank you."

Tamsin then leaned over to give him a goodbye kiss. She was aiming for his cheek, but Ronnie turned his head at the last moment so that their lips met one brief, final time. He stroked her cheek as she drew back. "Well, I guess I'd better drive you home, then."

He started the car and they drove back to Gartner Street in silence. On the way there, Carole King began to sing "It's Too Late" on the radio. Ronnie thought the melancholy song added the crowning touch to the evening.

_And it's too late, baby_

_Now it's too late_

_Though we really did try to make it_

_Something inside has died _

_And I can't hide and I just can't fake it…_

**Concluding Remarks: I hope I managed to show that Tamsin is really interested in Michael. Please let me know if I did OK — reviews make great birthday gifts! ;-)**


	17. Jealous Guy

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The city of Richmond, VA belongs to itself. The original Titans and Rasputin belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film Remember the Titans belongs to Disney. This chapter takes its title from the 1971 song by John Lennon. The 1971 song "Black Magic Woman" by Santana and Shakespeare's Henry V are quoted in the text. Albert Camus owns his essay Absurdity and Suicide, Langston Hughes owns Silhouette, and the Miller Brewing Company owns Miller Lite beer. I only own Tamsin, Jonathan, Michael, Annette and Mr. Magruder. 

**Author's Notes: Thanks to Twilight Fantasy, jd, Alanna-Lianna, Pyromaniacal Llama and all the repeat reviewers for the great feedback! Like I said, Tamsin has quite a bit of growing up to do in the following chapters. I hope you'll stick around to find out what happens next!**

Chapter Fifteen — Jealous Guy 

The rest of Ronnie's weekend passed in a fog. In a way, he was sort of graceful to just suddenly find himself on the front lawn that Monday morning, his body rising and falling in the familiar rhythms of _tai chi_. At least a whole Sunday's worth of empty time had passed him by.

"'Morning, Sunshine!"

He managed a smile for his friends, who had stopped by to greet him. "Hey, Petey…Alan, Julius."

"We missed you yesterday, man," Big Julius said. "We were callin' to ask if you wanted to meet us at the Burg to shoot some hoops, but your mom said you were still in bed. How you feelin'?"

"Still not so good," Ronnie replied truthfully as he Strummed the Lute, "but I'll be all right."

"Good," Petey said. Just then, his face lit up with a grin. "Hey, there, sweetness! Good morning!"

Big Julius' and Alan's greetings were more sedate. "'Morning, Tamsin."

Ronnie forced himself to keep his movements fluid even as he heard her familiar brisk footsteps come up behind him. "Hi, you guys," he heard Tamsin reply.

They were no longer a couple, but the sound of her voice still sent chills up his spine. He found himself looking at her when he turned his body to parry and punch. "Hi."

She gave him a small smile. "Hi."

He turned again to execute a Double Lotus Swing. When he looked back, she was gone and Petey was scowling at him. "What's up with _that_?" the black boy demanded, gesturing toward Tamsin's rapidly retreating form. "Y'all actin' like you don't know each other. You two break up or somethin'?"

Ronnie kept his eyes down as he finished his exercise. Instead of feeling calmer, he was actually even tenser than when he had begun, probably because of the news he had to break to his friends. "Yes."

Three jaws fell to the ground. _"It was Mikey, wasn't it?"_ Petey gasped dramatically.

"We're still friends," Ronnie added. "She just wants to be able to go out with other guys."

"Why would she want to go out with another guy when she already had you?" Alan asked, looking genuinely confused.

"I'm tellin' you, it's Mikey!" Petey said. He leveled Ronnie with a beady-eyed stare. "He hypnotized her into seein' him on the sly, didn't he?"

"No." Ronnie shook his head. "_No!_ Petey, that's ridiculous. She didn't even mention him. I mean, fine, maybe Tamsin _does like Mikey, but she wouldn't cheat on me like that." He sighed. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now, does it?"_

Tamsin's heart was pounding as she walked into the school building. That was the first time she had seen or spoken to Ronnie since they had broken up. Although they had parted on the best of terms, it was like seeing a wholly different person. It was as if the world had shifted drastically, or a piece of her was missing, or something.

Perhaps she was supposed to feel strange, she reflected as she arrived at her locker. He _was no longer her boyfriend, after all, and she had to get used to that._

"Hey, Tamsin," a soft voice said at her elbow. It was Michael, dressed as usual in beat-up cords, a rumpled oxford shirt and a tatty black sweater. 

She gave him a polite smile. "Hi, Michael."

"I took a look at the _Silhouette_ bulletin board and there's an announcement saying the next deadline for submissions is two weeks from now. I just thought you'd like to know."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Do you have anything ready to submit?"

"Yeah, I've got one or two pieces that just need reworking. I'm going to see if I can come up with more, though."

"I don't have anything yet," Michael admitted, "but my mom's friend's band will be playing at a club downtown this weekend. I was thinking of going to see them, maybe get inspired."

She nodded, bracing herself for the inevitable question.

"Would you like to come along?"

"I…" Tamsin swallowed. "I'll think about it, all right?"

* * *

"Tamsin!" 

Tamsin looked up to find Emma charge into Homeroom and flop breathlessly into her seat. "Julius just told me and Gerry!" the blonde girl exclaimed. "What happened? Why did you and Sunshine break up?"

_"Ssshhh!" Blushing, Tamsin glanced around cautiously to see whether anyone had heard. Her eyes skittered back to Emma when Ronnie and Petey entered the classroom. "Didn't Julius tell you why?" she asked in a whisper._

"He said you have some crazy notion about wanting to go out with another guy!"

She frowned. "Why is that crazy? I _do_ want to go out with another guy."

"Are you nuts?" 

"Is there a problem, Miss Hoyt?" Mr. Magruder asked then. He was eyeing the two girls intently. Tamsin blushed when she realized that most of the class was looking at them, too.

Emma shook her head and gave the teacher her patented china-doll stare. "No, Mr. Magruder."

"I'm very glad to hear it. It means I will be able to get on with the important school announcements I have to give to the class, doesn't it?"

"Yes, sir." The blonde girl's cheeks turned pink as people around them tittered. She turned to Tamsin and gave her a mock-threatening glare. "You'd better tell me the whole story later!"

Unfortunately for Emma, the two girls didn't see each other again until lunchtime, so by then she was absolutely dying of curiosity. She drew more than her fair share of odd looks as she hovered over Tamsin and, as soon as the other girl was finished with her lunch, dragged her away to the seldom-used girls' room next to the auditorium. "All right!" Emma said as she hustled Tamsin inside. "Talk!"

She shrugged. "We broke up. There's nothing more to say about that."

"What do you mean, _there's nothing more to say_? Of course there's more! Like — _why_?"

"You know that already. I want to go out with someone else."

"Why do you want to go out with someone else when you already have Sunshine?" The blonde girl planted her fists on her hips. "Practically every other girl in this town would _kill_ to go out with him!"

Tamsin's mouth twisted wryly as she remembered the Miranda episode earlier in the year. "Yeah, I know, but he's the only boy I've ever dated and I thought it was time for a change."

"But things were perfect the way they were!"

"Well, they aren't going to stay that way forever, are they?" Tamsin reached automatically for the charm on her bracelet, having developed the habit of playing with it when she was deep in thought, but stopped when she realized that she hadn't worn the bracelet today. "Emma, we're young, and we'll be off to college soon. Ronnie and I would have broken up sooner or later. Maybe you and Gerry will someday, too."

"No." The blonde girl shook her head resolutely. "Never. What Gerry and I have is forever."

"But how do you know that what Ronnie and I had is the same?"

"I just do," Emma insisted.

"Well, _I_ don't. You've gone out with other boys besides Gerry, right?" 

"Ye-es," Emma admitted. "A few before we started dating, and then one or two last year, before we got back together again."

"On the other hand, _I've only gone out with Ronnie. I don't know as much as you do about relationships. I want to gain more experience before I can decide whether some guy is 'forever.'"_

The blonde girl was silent for a moment. "I hope you ain't lookin' for the kind of 'experience' I'm thinkin' of right now," she said finally, smiling in spite of herself.

"_Em-ma!_ Of course not — get your mind out of the gutter!" Tamsin crossed her arms and waited for her friend's giggles to subside. "But you do understand now, don't you?" she asked when Emma had finally calmed down.

Emma nodded slowly. "Yeah, I suppose so. I'm sorry, Tamsin. You ain't doin' anythin' wrong. I just…I guess I just feel bad for Sunshine and what y'all had together. You were such a great couple."

The dark-haired girl blushed. "Look, I'm not saying Ronnie isn't Mr. Right. I'm saying _I don't know_ who Mr. Right is yet. I need to go out with more guys so I can recognize him when I see him."

* * *

Although they had agreed to remain friends, Ronnie avoided Tamsin for the next two days. He hoped she understood that he needed to get used to the idea of their no longer being together before he could start talking to her normally again; but just in case she thought he was angry, he decided to try and have a normal conversation with her that Wednesday. (Wednesday also happened to be Valentine's Day, but friends weren't supposed to care about that kind of thing.)

Fortunately for Ronnie, Michael stayed after class to talk to Mr. Graham about something, so Tamsin went to her locker alone. 

_Be cool, he told himself as he walked toward her. _You're just friends now._ But he could hardly hear himself over the pounding of his heart. "Hi, Tamsin," Ronnie said._

She smiled politely. "Hi, Ronnie," she replied as she shut her locker door.

He resisted the impulse to take her books and forced himself to lean nonchalantly against a neighboring locker instead. "How are you?" he asked.

"All right. How about you?"

"I'm doing fine, too." Ronnie watched Tamsin hug her books to herself, as if trying to put up a shield between them. He noticed that she wasn't wearing the bracelet he had given her. No wonder he didn't hear the familiar tinkle that usually accompanied her movements. "Do you have plans for Saturday? We're going to check out that new mall in Richmond. Maybe you want to come along. Emma, Cat and Sharon said they were going."

Her eyes widened and she blushed. "Oh…well, actually, yes, I do have plans."

She was glancing over his shoulder. Ronnie supposed she was looking for Michael. Well, if he wasn't still talking to Mr. Graham, the Titans were probably doing all they can to get in his way. Alan, Gerry and Blue had stationed themselves outside the classroom. Petey, who had been walking down the hall, almost automatically joined them. "You're going out?" Ronnie asked.

Tamsin nodded. 

He forced a smile. "Anyone I know?" _Why am I doing this to myself?_

"I'm going out with Michael," she told him quietly. "His mother's friend is in a band and we're going to see them Saturday night."

"Ah. Well, have fun."

"Thank you. You, too." She looked down at her books, which she seemed to be clinging to for dear life, and then back up at him. "Um, I have to get going. I need to return some books to the library."

"Oh. Sorry I kept you."

"No, that's all right." Tamsin smiled and his heart skipped a beat. "It was nice talking to you again."

"Same here."

"See you around."

Ronnie watched her walk briskly down the hall, long ponytail swishing behind her.

Gerry wheeled up beside him a few moments later. "So, how did it go?" he asked as the other Titans joined them.

He shrugged. "It went."

* * *

Tamsin surveyed herself in the small mirror that hung over her dresser. She supposed she looked OK: not a strand of her dark hair was out of place, her lipstick was perfect, and her plum-colored sweater didn't make her look fat. She just wished someone were around to give a second opinion. Unfortunately, Tamsin thought as she tugged on her short black skirt, all of her girl friends were in Richmond.

A car pulled up just as she had finished putting on her mother's gold hoop earrings. Tamsin took a deep breath to control the pounding of her heart. _Here goes nothing._

Uncle Jon was on the telephone when she entered the kitchen. He smiled when he saw her, and then gestured for Tamsin to answer the ringing doorbell.

Michael and his mother were standing on the porch. Tamsin smiled at them. "Hi."

Michael smiled back, a slow curling of his lips. "Hi, Tamsin."

"Hi, there," Annette said. "You look great. Don't worry, I'm only going to give you kids a ride. Now, why don't you get your coat while Michael and I go say hi to your uncle?"

"He's on the phone right now," Tamsin told the older woman.

"Well, I'll just wave to him so he knows what I look like. That way, if anything happens to you, he'll be able to pick me out of a police lineup."

She laughed. "In that case, he's in the kitchen. I'll show you the way."

Uncle Jon smiled and waved when Tamsin appeared with Michael and his mother. "We'll have her back here by midnight," Annette told him.

"All right," Uncle Jon said. He still held the telephone receiver to his ear. "Have fun, Tam."

"'Bye, Uncle Jon," Tamsin replied.

"Your mother says goodbye and have a nice time."

"Oh, well, tell her thanks."

As she left the house with the Cardinals, she overheard her uncle telling her mother that she was going out with Michael. "Didn't she tell you? She and Mr. Wonderful have broken up…yes, it's too bad, but they're young…you weren't expecting them to spend the rest of their lives together, were you?"

* * *

While Annette drove Michael and Tamsin downtown, Ronnie stayed home and washed his hair. He did it every day, of course, and only girls were supposed to wash their hair when they weren't going out; but this was the Seventies and he prided himself on being a liberated male.

Ronnie was pulling a TC Williams sweatshirt over his head when he heard the doorbell ring. A few minutes later, he heard his mother call for him. "You have visitors," she told him with a smile when he bounded downstairs.

Gerry, Blue, Petey, Big Julius, Alan and Rev were crowded in the Basses' small foyer. _"Hi, Sunshine!" they chorused cheerfully._

"Hi," he replied, surprised. He'd gone to Richmond with them just that afternoon and they hadn't said anything about coming over. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, we were supposed to go over to Tamsin's and try to stalk her and her date," Blue told him, "but then we figured we'd do more good if we just came over here and kept you company tonight."

Ronnie smiled. "Well, I'm glad to see you guys. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself."

"_I have a suggestion," Petey said with an evil little grin._

"No one wants to hear it," Rev broke in.

They passed by Col. Bass's study so Ronnie's friends could say hello to his father, then the boys went out back. Petey claimed the tire swing hanging from the single tree growing in the small backyard while the rest of the Titans gathered around the weathered picnic table set up nearby. "Still kind of cold, isn't it?" Alan remarked. "Even with it bein' nearly spring and all." 

"We can go sit in the living room if you want," Ronnie said. It was much warmer now than it had been last week, but Alan was sitting all hunched over and hugging himself as if for warmth.

"No way, man," Big Julius told him. "We always sit out here when we come over."

"And besides," Gerry added in a low voice, "we brought friends."

Ronnie arched an eyebrow. "You brought friends?"

"We sure did," Petey chuckled. "The Millers are here."

Glancing over his shoulder to make sure that neither of Ronnie's parents was around, Alan unzipped his jacket and placed six cans of Miller Lite on the table before them. "Way to go, Alan!" Blue praised him.

"I live but to serve," the wiry blond boy replied grandly.

"Yeah, way to go, man," Gerry repeated. "There are seven of us and only six beers."

The smug smile disappeared from Alan's face as he counted. "Oh. Well, it's the thought that counts."

* * *

The band was playing in a club downtown. As she entered the basement-level club, Tamsin was taken aback at all the noise and the warmth generated by closely packed bodies. She looked apprehensively at the crowded dance floor and wondered how Michael expected to derive inspiration from such a place. 

Michael leaned over and she just managed to hear him invite her to dance before he took her hand and drew her into the middle of the wilderness.

Tamsin stood still for a moment, taking it all in. All around them, colored lights flashed over dancers gyrating to the pulsing beat. The music throbbed through her entire body, making her blood race. And then she, too, began to dance. 

_Got a black magic woman…The rhythm drummed through the soles of her feet and she let it carry her away. She swiveled and swayed and sang along with the band as she watched moving arms and legs, swinging hair and strings of beads turn red, purple, blue and green under the lights. _

Michael had taken her into a moving rainbow.

He smiled as he danced across from her and Tamsin smiled back. She understood what Michael saw now. With his height and broad shoulders, Ronnie had taken up her entire field of vision during the few times they had danced together. Michael, on the other hand, let the rest of the world in.

* * *

Rev solved the beer shortage by foregoing his share, leaving each of the remaining Titans with one can of beer each. Big Julius was the first to pop open his. "All right," he announced, raising his can a few inches off the table in a small salute. "Tonight we drink to Sunshine."

"Here, here," Gerry said as the rest of the boys raised their beers.

Petey took a sip of his and reached over to pat Ronnie on the back. "Cheer up, man. There are plenty of other girls in town. We'll find you one with enough sense not to dump you for some guy who looks like Rasputin's son."

Ronnie had to laugh at his friend's description of Michael, but the idea of going out with another girl didn't sound too good at the moment. "I don't really want to go out with anyone else right now," he said.

"Well, it ain't good for you to be alone, man!"

"I'm not alone. I've got you guys."

Petey shot him a repressive glare. "Sunshine, I _told_ you I don't swing that way!"

"And we've already established that Sunshine doesn't swing that way, either," Rev broke in before the fruitcake jokes could begin. "He's just sayin' he isn't lonely because he's got us to keep him company."

"And besides, he's on the rebound," Gerry piped up. "It ain't good for him to be lookin' for another girlfriend so soon after breakin' up with Tamsin." 

Ronnie shot Gerry a grateful look. The other boy had been in pretty much the same situation last year, when he and Emma had cooled it off for a while. "Thanks, bro."

"But if you want Tamsin back," Gerry said with a grin, "we can help you with that."

"We can lock her in a closet until she comes to her senses," Big Julius suggested.

"Let's lock her _and Sunshine_ in a closet together she comes to her senses!" Petey cried, and the Titans laughed. 

The boys' laughter carried across the backyard and into the house, where, unbeknownst to them, Col. and Mrs. Bass were standing at their living room window, watching their grinning son take another sip of beer. "I'm worried about them, Bill," Mrs. Bass fretted. "Not only is it illegal, it's highly dangerous. We can't send those boys home _drunk_!"

"Leave them be, Betty," Col. Bass told her. "They're young men. Besides, they're each having only one beer and that won't kill them." He silenced his wife with a finger to her lips when she made to protest. "If any of the boys look like they're in no condition to drive or face their parents, they can surely stay here for the night."

* * *

Annette pulled up outside 125 Gartner Street at ten minutes to midnight. She smiled at the pair sitting in the back of the van. "Well, I'm going to step outside for a smoke. Don't take too long now!" She blew her son a kiss, then stepped out of the van. 

"Well," Michael said into the silence that ensued, "my ears feel all stuffed up."

"Mine, too," she admitted with a laugh. "It must have been all the noise in the club."

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yes, I had a lot of fun."

"Good." He smiled. "Then you wouldn't mind doing this again sometime?"

Tamsin smiled back and shook her head. "That would be great."

Michael fell silent again, and then began to draw closer. She gasped softly, her pulse beginning to race, but didn't move away.

His lips were soft, warm and dry, and they moved over Tamsin's with a gentleness that made her heart sing. He didn't try to force her lips to part, didn't even try to press any closer. It didn't mean that Ronnie hadn't done those things; Tamsin was just noting the fact that Michael was a pretty good kisser.

He was smiling when they pulled away. "You have witchcraft in your lips," he murmured.

She blushed. It had sure felt like he knew what he was doing, while she had never kissed anyone else but Ronnie up until that night. "Thank you," she replied, for want of anything else to say.

He chuckled. "Well, I suppose you should go on in. Your uncle must be waiting up for you."

"That's very likely. Good night."

"Good night."

* * *

Sharing those beers with his friends had been the best time Ronnie had had in recent memory. The Titans had laughed, made jokes and thought up all sorts of outrageous schemes to try and get him and Tamsin back together. They hadn't made any suggestions that were actually helpful, but the companionship had done him good.

He came to school that Monday resolving to get on with his life. The relationship with Tamsin was over, Ronnie told himself as he began his daily _tai chi, but they were still friends. What was important was that there was no hate in the situation._

_Tai chi helped restore his balance, just like in the old days. He poured all of his energy into performing the exercises perfectly, and came out of it feeling blessedly empty and calmer than he had been in ages._

Ronnie felt only the slightest twinge when he saw Tamsin walk by, when they exchanged polite good-morning nods, and when he watched her meet up with Michael by the front steps. She was free to go out with whomever she wished, he thought as he scooped up his books and jacket and made his way toward the TC Williams building. Judging from the sickeningly cheerful smile on her face, Tamsin was happy; and if she was happy, he was happy.

He was _happy._

He concentrated on the laughs he had shared with the Titans that past weekend. It seemed to be working, because he was actually smiling as he stopped by his locker. 

"Sunshine?" said a female voice at his elbow.

Ronnie turned to find Miranda Fleming standing beside him, smiling hesitantly. She didn't have that slightly predatory look she used to have on her face whenever he saw her; instead, she looked nervous. She was hugging her books to her chest the way Tamsin had last week. He gave her a small smile. "Hi, Miranda."

Miranda relaxed visibly at his friendly response. "How's it going?" she asked.

"Just fine."

"Listen, I heard about you and Tamsin," the redheaded girl said, her voice low. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault."

"No, I—" She gave an embarrassed laugh. "I'm definitely sorry about the way I behaved long, long ago…in another life…but I also wanted to say I'm sorry about you two breaking up."

"Oh." Ronnie wasn't sure what to say to that, so he just shrugged philosophically.

"You two were a great couple. Really." She sounded like she meant it. "If you need someone to talk to—well, I know you've got the Titans to fall back on, but, you know, I'm here for you, too. As a friend."

He nodded. "Thanks."

* * *

Just as he did during his morning _tai chi_, Ronnie poured all his efforts into focusing on his classes.  When he wasn't in class, the crowd of loud, laughing Titans made it easy to keep his mind off Tamsin. As a result, he spent the day in a fairly good mood.

The only serious damper on his spirits occurred during English class. Mr. Graham had assigned group work on their current reading, Albert Camus' _Absurdity and Suicide. The students were allowed to pick their partners, so Ronnie worked with Gerry worked together in answering the thought-provoking questions about the essay._

He happened to look up while Gerry finished writing down their answer to the third question, and his eyes happened to wander over to the front row, where Tamsin was seated. Her head was bent and it looked like she was writing something. Michael was sitting next to her, watching her write. 

Ronnie watched the dark-haired boy reached over to cup Tamsin's neck. He snorted back a laugh when she jerked, startled, and shoved Michael's hand away. 

"What's so funny?" Gerry asked, still absorbed in his writing.

"Nothing, really," Ronnie replied. Michael had apparently tried to give Tamsin a neck rub, but didn't know that you weren't supposed to just grab her neck like that because she was really ticklish. Ronnie had tried the same thing before.

"You laughing at nothing now, Sunshine? Man, you must be really messed up. Maybe you shouldn't be reading this Camus stuff, since it's about suicide and all."

"No, man, I'm fine."

"If you say so. Come on, let's answer the question we skipped so we can hand this in."

Things took a sharp downward turn at the end of the period. Just as Ronnie was leaving the classroom, Ray blocked his way. "I heard about you and the Chink breaking up," he said, jerking his head toward where Tamsin was talking to Mr. Graham.

Ronnie scowled slightly. If the smirk on the stocky boy's face was any indication, Ray, unlike Miranda, wasn't planning to offer his condolences. "What about it?"

"Well, I told you to stick to your own kind, didn't I? _Her_ kind obviously ain't no good. See, you were together just for a while and then she throws you over for—"

"She didn't 'throw me over.' Our breaking up was a mutual decision."

Ray sneered. "Sure it was."

It took tremendous willpower to keep from shoving Ray as he turned away. Ronnie had to content himself with glaring at his former teammate's retreating back before setting off toward the school weight room so that he could have a go on the punching bag. 

He found Michael standing out in the hall, obviously waiting for Tamsin. Having wasted most of his willpower on Ray, Ronnie found himself stalking over to the dark-haired boy.

They stared each other down. Michael was a good six inches shorter than Ronnie, and maybe twenty pounds lighter. He knew how to defend himself, judging from the incident in the gym, but Ronnie was sure he'd still come off best in a one-on-one fight. It would be so easy to punch Michael's lights out before Tamsin came out of the classroom. 

_But it wasn't right. He wasn't like that jerk, Ray Budds, who got off on bullying people smaller than he was. And more importantly, Tamsin wouldn't like it if he roughed up her new boyfriend. Ronnie reluctantly unclenched his fists and contented himself with giving Michael his best gridiron glare. "If you break her heart, I break your legs. You dig?"_

The dark-haired boy didn't flinch. "Yeah, I dig."


	18. Give Me Some Truth

**Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, John Lennon and Evil Knievel belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the movie _Remember the Titans belong to Disney. This chapter is titled after the 1971 John Lennon song. __The Myth of Sisyphus belongs to Albert Camus and the Piggly Wiggly chain of stores to whoever makes money off them. Blue's "bucket of chicken" remark came from the movie _To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar_ and Tamsin's "Et tu" remark from Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_. I only own Tamsin, her family, some of her friends and even some people who aren't her friends._**

**Technical Notes: Tamsin uses some strong language in this chapter. You have been warned.**

**Author's Notes: Boy, these chapters are getting harder and harder to write. Don't worry, though, I still fully intend to finish this story! Many, many thanks to my best friend Sabby for helping me with some sticky dialogue, to the repeat reviewers for their encouragement (**Pyromaniacal Llama** – thanks for sharing that bit of trivia! I just might use it in the Rev-centric prequel I've got planned…) and to you for reading :D Enjoy! ~ Ara**

_Chapter Sixteen — Give Me Some Truth_

It seemed to Tamsin that the news of her breakup with Ronnie was not just all over school, but all over _town as well. She had received many curious stares over the past week, and heard her name whispered more than once while she was browsing in the library, waiting in the checkout line in the supermarket, even standing at the bus stop. It was creepy, but she knew she had to learn to live with it because in football-crazy Alexandria, the Titans were celebrities. The locals couldn't help but take an interest in their comings and goings. _

At least no one had come up to Tamsin and straight-out told her she was crazy to break up with Ronnie. (Sheryl Yoast's blatant snub in the Piggly Wiggly didn't count because the little girl hadn't actually _said_ anything.)

"That's because I'm _not crazy," Tamsin said to her mother over the phone that Sunday night. "Ronnie understood why I wanted to break up with him. I don't see why everyone else can't."_

"Just ignore them, sweetie," Diana advised her. "You are doing the right thing: you're meeting new people and broadening your life experiences. Everyone has a right — nay, an _obligation_ — to live their lives to the fullest."

She grinned. "You're not about to have another of your 'soapbox moments,' are you, Mom?" Her mother liked to deliver impassioned lectures about life every once in a while. Tamsin didn't mind, though. The lectures were fun to listen to, as long as they weren't about something bad that she had done.

"No," Diana replied. "I'm just saying that life is short and I want you to be happy as often as you can within the time that you are given."

"I am happy, Mom. I was happy with Ronnie, and I'm happy with Michael. We have so much in common. Michael is sensitive, intelligent and artistic—"

"—just like you?"

Tamsin laughed. "Yeah, just like me."

Her mother laughed, too. "And does he also have a healthy opinion of himself?"

"Actually, he does, kind of," she admitted, "but then he's entitled, isn't he? And it's not as if he lords it over everyone or acts like a know-it-all. I wouldn't tolerate him if he were like that. We also have similar backgrounds," she went on. "He grew up without a father, too, and his mom is really cool."

"Is she as cool as me?"

She stuck her tongue out at the telephone receiver. Her mother could get really blatant when she was fishing for compliments. "Oh, Mom, you know no one's as cool as you!"

* * *

Like Tamsin, Michael also brought his lunch from home instead of buying it. "My mom's suspicious about the kind of stuff that goes into cafeteria food," he said as they strolled down the hall toward the cafeteria, brown bags in hand.

"Plus it just doesn't taste good," she added, making a face. "I like to think I have a pretty adventurous palate but I still have my limits."

As they pushed through the swinging double doors, they ran into Eddie and Big Julius, who were on their way to the food line. "Hi, guys," Tamsin greeted them.

The two boys nodded to her. "Hey, Tamsin," Big Julius said. He gave Michael a small nod, too. "Mikey."

"Hey," Michael replied politely, even though Tamsin knew he hated being called anything other than his proper first name.

Behind them, several yards away, she could see the rest of the Titans at their usual table, craning their necks to watch the proceedings. She jerked her gaze from Ronnie to look back at Eddie, who was grinning cheekily at her. "On your way to buy lunch?" she asked.

"Yeah," the dark-haired boy told her. "We have to do that now because no one's sharing her scrumptious home cooking with us anymore."

Tamsin laughed. "Well, you'll just have to deal with it."

"Are you going to Sharon's party next weekend?" Big Julius asked then.

"Oh, yes." She nodded. "She called up and invited me yesterday afternoon."

"Cool. You'd better show up, now. Sharon will be mighty hurt if you don't."

"Michael and I will be there."

The big black boy glanced briefly at Michael and grunted. "Good. See you there."

After Eddie and Big Julius had moved on, Tamsin and Michael went out the back door and into the side courtyard. The air was still damp from the last of the melted snow and the lawns were slowly becoming greener with new grass. Students were scattered about here and there, eating lunch and talking. Some were even sneaking forbidden cigarettes in a hidden spot behind the tool shed.

Michael bummed a cigarette from one of the smokers and Tamsin followed him to a concrete bench set behind a tree. They each took one end of the bench, leaving enough space between them to spread out their lunch. "I'm sorry about Eddie and Julius," she said before biting into the substantial steak sandwich her uncle had packed for her.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. 

"Well…they called you 'Mikey.'" _And that was only the beginning, she thought. They had barely spoken to him at all in the cafeteria. In fact, they had completely ignored him after that stilted hello._

Michael shrugged. "It's OK. It's not like they know — or remember, assuming I had told them — that I prefer to be called 'Michael.'" He smiled dryly. "Besides, I don't think those guys have forgiven me for stealing you away from one of their own."

Tamsin covered her face with one hand and groaned. "Oh, my God."

"Hey, it's only to be expected," he told her with a chuckle. "Jocks are the same the world over: highly possessive, as well as possessing a herd mentality. Want some?" he asked, holding out the container of curry he was having for lunch that day.

She shook her head. The first (and last) time she had tried some of Annette's curry, her tongue had curled up from all the spice. Apparently, smoking had dulled the woman's taste buds.

It was on its way to dulling her son's, too. After wolfing down his lunch, Michael lit up and blew a thin stream of cigarette smoke into the air. "You sure you don't mind?" he asked, gesturing with the cigarette.

Tamsin shook her head even as she wrinkled her nose. "I don't mind," she said, opening the paperback she had brought with her. "At least we're outside, and I'm sitting upwind from you so I don't have to breathe in the smoke."

He smiled. "You are so easy to be with."

She smiled back, thrilling at the compliment.

When Tamsin opened her book, Michael leaned in to read over her shoulder. She snuggled back against him. Although she didn't like cigarette smoke, the scent of it on his clothes reminded her of her mother and of New York. 

She turned a page, appreciating the peace and quiet. Not only was the air much fresher outside the cafeteria, there was no Petey grabbing her book out of her hand and starting a game of keep-away. There was no Gerry rebuking her that it was rude to read at the table, no Blue forcing her to listen to his latest Momma joke. Unlike Ronnie, who was almost always surrounded by Titans, Michael had very few friends. _It's hard, Tamsin thought sympathetically,__ to find people to hang out with when you aren't on the same intellectual wavelength as the rest of humanity._

* * *

A drop of water splashed on his nose. 

Ronnie winced and swiped at his face with his sleeve. He used the monkey wrench to tighten the joint. There was another drip, but it was smaller than the one that went before, and then there was none.

"How are you doing in there?" his father asked from outside the kitchen cabinet.

"All done," he replied, easing out from underneath the sink. He blinked at the sudden brightness of the kitchen light.

Col. Bass eyed his son's rumpled hair and water-splotched shirt. "You'd better take a shower and change those clothes before you go out tonight."

"I will," Ronnie said. He sat up to return the wrench to the toolbox, then turned to see his father looking at him closely. "What?"

Blue-gray eyes just like his own looked back at him. "I was just wondering how you were doing."

"I'm OK."

"Looking forward to your friend's party?"

"Yeah. All the guys are going to be there, so it should be fun." Ronnie shut the toolbox and drummed his fingers on the scratched and peeling lid. Bits of red paint stuck to his fingertips. "I heard Tamsin's going to be there."

"And how do you feel about that?" Col. Bass wanted to know.

He shrugged. "OK," he said again. "I'm kind of nervous because it's the first party since we, uh, you know, stopped seeing each other…but I'm getting used to seeing her just as a friend, so I think everything will be all right." 

"Good. I don't think you'll have any serious problems, since you and Tamsin decided to remain friends, but all the same, it's important to keep cool."

"I know, Dad."

Col. Bass's advice was rolling around in Ronnie's head as he walked up to the Williamses' house that evening. He was going to be OK, he told himself. All his friends were going to be there. They would keep him company. And Tamsin wasn't the only girl in the world.

Big Julius answered the doorbell on the first ring. "Hey, Sunshine! Good to see you!"

Ronnie slapped his friend a low five as he walked into the foyer. "Hey, bro. What are you, the bouncer?"

"Yeah, so you better be nice to me or I'll throw you out."

Presently, Sharon appeared in the hallway, carrying a platter of sandwiches. Petey came next with two big bowls of party snacks.

The pretty black girl smiled when she saw Ronnie. "Hi, Sunshine. Glad you could make it."

"Glad to be here," he replied with a smile of his own. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Here, you take this," Petey said before Sharon could answer. He shoved a bowl of pretzels into Ronnie's arms. "They ain't all for you, though."

They followed their hostess to the Williamses' recreation room, where the party was being held. After setting down his bowl with the rest of the food, Ronnie looked around to see who was already there. Besides the Titans and their girlfriends, he saw most of the guys he remembered from basketball games at the Burg as well as several people he didn't know. "Dennis Currie's visiting from college and he brought along some friends of his," Petey said enthusiastically as they joined the Titans and their girls. "How's about you take the redhead and I take the hot mama in the green miniskirt?"

_"Petey!"_ Liz cried. "You can't just divvy up people that way!"

"Good choice, my man," Blue said approvingly, as if the dark-haired girl had said nothing at all. "Mm-mm-_mm, she got more legs than a bucket of chicken!"_

"Now _there's_ something else we didn't need to hear," Emma said as Liz and Cat rolled their eyes.

Gerry grinned at her. "Come on, sugar, let 'em be. Boys will be boys, after all."

Indeed, even Liz's own brother joined the discussion. "But Alan says he likes the redhead," Eddie remarked.

"No," Alan told him. "I said I _don't like redheads. You're welcome to go after her, Sunshine."_

Ronnie laughed uncomfortably. "I don't think I'm up to talking to any girls tonight, guys."

Blue groaned. "Are you still hung up on Tamsin? Man, how're you gonna get over her if you don't make an active effort to forget?"

"Blue's right," Rev put in. "It's all up to you."

"If you don't want the redhead," Ryan suggested, "how about that brunette who just walked in?" He turned to get a better look at the girl, then turned back to Ronnie, eyes wide. "No, forget that," he said as the other Titans began to laugh. He and Petey stepped in front of the blond boy to block his view of the door. "You don't want the brunette. Trust me, _you don't want her."_

"Why?" Ronnie asked, trying to see around the two boys. "Who is it?"

As if on cue, Emma jumped up. "Oh, Tamsin's here," she said. "Let's go say hi."

"_That's_ why you don't want the brunette," Eddie told his teammate with a wry smile as the girls walked over to the brunette in question, who was saying hello to Sharon with Michael at her side.

Ronnie answered with a wry smile of his own. "Look, you guys, I _have not_ sworn off girls forever. I just don't want to get back into a relationship so soon after breaking up with Tamsin. Tell you what, Petey — I'll talk to that redhead, but only to make friends, all right?"

"All right," Petey said, relieved. "At least it's a step in the right direction."

The redhead's name was Tania, and she was from Wisconsin. She was actually pretty nice and introduced him to some of the people Ronnie didn't know, both boys _and_ girls. The girls teased him about how cute he was "for a younger man," the boys talked football, and they all gamely answered his questions about college life.

Ronnie had to admit he had a pretty good time. Not only did he get to hang out with his friends, but he had met some great new people, too. And he hadn't moped about Tamsin once. He had been nice to her when they had wound up at the food table at the same time, and he still couldn't help stealing glances at her every now and then, but he hadn't moped.

_Dad was right,_ he thought. _You just have to relax, enjoy the ride, and take each moment as it comes. You just have to keep cool._

* * *

"It was really nice hangin' out with you again at the party," Emma said to Tamsin as they visited the girls' room with Cat and Sharon that after lunch that Monday.

Tamsin nodded as she ran a brush through her hair. "I had a great time hanging out with you guys, too. Thanks for inviting me and Michael, Sharon."

"Anytime," the tall black girl replied with a smile. "I hope Michael had fun."

"Oh, he sure did. I'll admit it was kind of hard at first because he didn't know anyone that well so I had to baby-sit—" 

"Baby-sitting." Cat laughed. "That's a great way to describe it."

"I saw him talking to some of the Burg kids," Emma said, "and he talked to me, too, for a while when I went to get food for me and Gerry. He was pretty nice."

Tamsin beamed. "I'm glad you think so."

"I found him to be kind of serious," the blonde girl admitted. "But maybe I'm just not used to his type."

"Yeah," Cat agreed. "We're more used to—" She looked embarrassed. "Uh, never mind what we're used to."

"You can say Ronnie's name in front of me," Tamsin said. "We're still friends."

"We didn't want you to think we were comparing Michael to him."

"That's OK," the dark-haired girl replied with a wry little smile. "We're used to it." 

Sharon frowned in concern. "Aw, are people givin' you a hard time about Michael?"

Tamsin shrugged. "No one's actually _said anything," she said, "but I know people are watching us when we're out together. I've seen the looks on their faces. They're comparing him to Ronnie and it's obvious that Michael never measures up."_

"How is Michael taking it?"

"He ignores them." She hugged herself and scowled. "I'm trying to ignore them, too, but it's just so _aggravating. Sometimes I just want to…" __Sometimes I just want to turn around and tell them to fuck off, she thought,_ because they are so very wrong. You can't compare Michael with Ronnie. They're like apples and oranges — two very different people.__

Cat patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Forget them, Tamsin. They just can't see Michael the way you do."

Tamsin looked up at her friends. "How about you?" she asked. "Can _you_ understand why I like him so much?"

The other girls were quiet for a moment. "Well, unlike all those other people, we know you," Sharon finally answered. "So, yeah, we know what you see in Michael."

"You two have so much in common it's scary," Cat piped up.

"But more importantly," Emma added, "we see that he makes you happy. And if you're happy, _we're_ happy."

Tamsin managed a smile. Her friends obviously thought that Michael was odd — they had had trouble answering her question about whether they understood her feelings about him — but she decided to ignore that in favor of the knowledge that they genuinely cared about her, too. "Thanks."

* * *

Dinner had been perfect. The food turned out just as Tamsin had planned: spinach salad to start, followed by a rich, flavorful curry featuring crunchy chunks of shrimp and an array of condiments, nutty brown rice (bought from Homegrown & Organic, of course), and a tart Key lime pie for dessert. Michael and his mother ate well, praised everything, and said they had a wonderful time.

The only damper on the evening was Uncle Jon. He was perfectly polite and sociable, but something was missing. Tamsin pondered it for a moment before finally putting her finger on the problem: her normally gregarious uncle had not appeared as comfortable as he had been with the Basses.

Maybe he was just preoccupied, she told herself after the Cardinals had left. Uncle Jon had sent off the first draft of his book two weeks ago, and his editor still hadn't gotten back to him with comments. He had to prepare for midterms, too; they were coming up soon.

But she had to know. "How did you like Michael's mom?" Tamsin asked casually as she wrapped up the leftover pie and put it in the refrigerator.

Uncle Jon looked up from rinsing the dirty dinner plates. "She was OK," he replied before turning back to his task.

"How about Michael? How do you find him outside the classroom?"

"He's OK."

"'OK'? That's all you can say?"

Her uncle straightened up from loading the dishwasher and sighed. "Just what is it you want to know, Tam? Do you want to know whether I like Michael as a boyfriend for you?" He gave her a wry little smile. "You actually care what an old-fogy adult has to say?"

"Of course I do," she said with a slight frown. "I've always come to you or to Mom for advice." Her frown deepened when it became apparent that Uncle Jon was hesitating, the way Sharon had in the girls' room the other day. "I'm not going to like what you're going to say, am I?"

He held up a hand in a silent request that she hear him out. "I know you like Michael a lot, sweetie, and I can see why — he's intelligent, artistic, and fairly good-looking, after all. But…let's just say I have a few misgivings about him, all right?"

"What kind of misgivings?" Tamsin wanted to know.

Her uncle grimaced. "Well, you've got to admit his family background isn't very good."

"He grew up without a father," she said. "Just like me."

"That doesn't mean that he turned out just like you, sweetie. Michael's a bit more…antisocial."

"He's on a different intellectual wavelength from the average person, that's all." Her frown developed into a full-fledged scowl. "And didn't _you_ always tell me to be friends with all kinds of people?"

"Being friends is fine, Tam, but I don't know if I want you to be more than that him." Uncle Jon frowned slightly. "I just have this feeling that I shouldn't leave you alone with him."

She sent him a baleful look as she began to wipe off the tabletop with a damp sponge. "Nothing has happened, is happening and will ever happen, Uncle Jon. He's not that kind of guy."

"Perhaps he isn't now, but what about tomorrow? I know all about teenage boys, you know, having been one myself."

_And yet you sound like you've forgotten what it's like to be young,_ Tamsin thought rebelliously.

"If you want to know the truth, sweetie," he told her in a gentle voice, "I must admit I kind of prefer Sunshine."

_Et tu, Uncle Jon?_  "_Everyone prefers Ronnie," she grumbled. __Why? she wondered. _Is it because Ronnie was a "good" boy? Is it because he's popular? A jock? The poster boy for the Big Men On Campus Club? Just because Michael doesn't subscribe to convention doesn't mean—__

"You asked me for my opinion, Tam," her uncle reminded her.

Tamsin flung her sponge into the sink. She didn't want to hear any more. "Yeah, well, I did it because I thought I could count on you for some support."

* * *

_Thump-thump-thump._

Someone was tapping a pencil on his or her textbook. 

Ronnie tried to tune it out, but the sound had always driven him crazy and the fact that he knew it was _there was distracting him from Mr. Graham reading Camus' __The Myth of Sisyphus aloud to the class._

_"You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth…"_

He heard someone snort. _Thumpthumpthump._

Ronnie finally looked up from his English book to search for the offender. The people seated on the grass around him (Mr. Graham was conducting class outdoors that day again) were bent over their books, the afternoon sun streaming through the trees and casting dappled shadows on their heads. None of them seemed to be holding a pencil, much less making that annoying noise. 

A couple of the girls smiled at him when they realized he was looking their way. He smiled politely back (he couldn't very well ignore Josie Morello, because he had asked her out just the day before) and continued his search.

Then his eye fell on Tamsin, sitting a few feet away. She was scowling slightly as she looked down at her own book, eyes following the words as Mr. Graham read. She was also drumming her pencil on the open page.

_"Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn…"_

Tamsin's mouth twisted wryly. Ronnie watched her give a small nod, the way she always did when she heard or read something she liked, and underline a passage in the reading. 

She then went back to thumping on her book, but he barely noticed it this time. Ronnie was more preoccupied by the fact that she looked like she was really angry about something. She had practically slashed at her book with her pencil, her posture was tense, and she was still frowning. Either That Time of the Month was near again, or Tamsin was in a very foul mood.

_"I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy,"_ Mr. Graham concluded, and looked back up at the class with a smile. "There! How did you find the essay?"

"I couldn't understand a thing," Ray complained. _Big surprise, Ronnie thought._

Gerry raised his hand. "Mr. Graham, how can Sisyphus be a hero?" he asked. "He didn't do anything special. He disobeyed the gods and now he's stuck rolling a rock up a hill for all eternity. Where's the glory in that?"

"The glory," Tamsin said without bothering to raise her hand and wait to be called upon, "lies in the fact that he got to do what he wanted. He beat the gods."

"But he got punished," Rev protested.

"Well, he's beating his punishment, too."

Quite a few of the people around her had puzzled frowns on their faces. "Could you run that by me again?" a black girl with long, curly hair asked.

"Sisyphus," Tamsin said, "is the absurd hero because his passion for life led him to revolt against death and against the gods. And in a way, he found freedom.

"Sisyphus is scorning his fate. He is 'stronger than his rock' — he isn't dwelling on his punishment. Instead, he's thinking about his extra time on earth. He got to be alive again. He got to have good times and bad times. He had an adventure. And he did something no one else had ever done, or done again since, and to the gods, too — beings that an ordinary person would never dream of defying. 

"Sisyphus got what he wanted, even for only a short time, and he's proud of himself." She jabbed a finger into the air in front of her for emphasis. "_That's_ why he's a hero. _That's_ why he's happy."

There was a short pause, and Michael started to applaud. 

_Something was definitely wrong,_ Ronnie thought as he and some of the other students started applauding, too. There had been an extra vehemence in Tamsin's words, like she had been talking about more than just the essay. And unlike Mr. Sensitive Artist, who was doing nothing more than clapping like a trained seal, Ronnie was going to find out what was bothering her.

There was nothing wrong with that, he told himself. He and Tamsin had agreed to stay friends.

He approached her cautiously after Mr. Graham dismissed them for the day. Michael had gone up to the teacher, no doubt to ask another one of his ultra-intelligent suck-up questions, and she was noisily stacking her books, one on top of the other. "Hey, Tamsin," he said.

She stood and smiled briefly when she saw him, but her expression remained shuttered. "Hi."

"That was quite an answer back there. You know, about how Sisyphus is a hero and all that."

"Thanks."

Ronnie gave her a small smile. "You really meant it, didn't you?" he asked, thinking back to the afternoon just like this one many months ago, when he had first asked her out.

"Yes, I did." Tamsin didn't smile.

"So…what's up?" he asked casually, sticking a hand in his pocket. His strategy was to first ask about her general well being; and if something seemed off, he was going to zero in on it.

"Nothing."

His brows drew together. Now _that had sounded off right from the get-go. "It sounds to me like nothing's up because everything's down," he observed._

She shrugged and looked down at her feet. "Things…just haven't been going my way lately," she finally admitted, hugging her books to her chest.

_Aha!_ "In what way exactly?" Ronnie wanted to know.

At his question, Tamsin stiffened and the barrier went right back up again. "No way in particular," she replied in the same distant voice she had used to say that nothing was up just a few minutes ago.

"Hey, come on, if something's bothering you, you can talk to me about it. That's what friends are for, right?"

"But nothing's bothering me."

He knew she was lying. "Tamsin…"

"Look, Ronnie," she told him wearily, "I appreciate the gesture, but really, nothing's wrong. I'm just not in a very good mood right now."

"Well, is there anything I can do to help?"

Tamsin smiled — really smiled — for the first time since they had begun the conversation. It was a strained, sad, tired smile, but a genuine one nonetheless. "No. I just need to tough it out, that's all."

"You can do it." There was something bothering her, all right, but Ronnie doubted if he was going to be able to get it out of her just yet. What was important at present was that she knew she had a friend. "And if you need, like, anything…I'm here for you."

She blushed. "Thank you," she said, just as Michael walked up to them. 

"Hi, guys," the dark-haired boy said with a mild glance in Ronnie's direction. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Tamsin said again.

"Ready to go?"

"Yeah." She smiled at Ronnie. "See you around."

Ronnie thought she looked a lot happier now than she had a while ago. He was sure Michael's presence had a lot to do with it, but he liked to think he had made a small contribution, too. "Yeah, see you," he replied with a smile of his own. 

Michael nodded politely to him before walking away with Tamsin. Ronnie noticed that she was still carrying her own books.

* * *

People started shuffling to their feet as the bus trundled further down the sun-splashed street. Presently, the bus stop at Gartner and Vine came into view.

"Well, there's my stop," Tamsin murmured.

Michael leaned over and kissed her goodbye as the bus slowed down and finally came to a stop. His lips tasted faintly of coffee. "Ask your uncle, OK?"

"I will."

"I'll call you," he said when she got up to leave.

"Great." She smiled at him, then turned to see that a girl she knew from her Calculus class was riding the same bus and had been watching them with a perplexed look on her face. 

_Not again._ Tamsin's smile faded, to be replaced by an icy look. The girl looked away quickly, blushing when she realized she had been caught staring, but the damage was done. Tamsin swept scornfully past her and out of the bus, onto the street.

"It's Michael and me against the world," she murmured to herself as she strode briskly down Gartner Street toward her house. _God, that is so cliché,_ she thought with a bitter snort._ But it was true._

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Ordinarily, she would have enjoyed the new-growing scents in the air, the robin's egg blue sky and the warm sunshine (_Don't think about him,_ Tamsin thought), but that day she was taking it all as a personal affront. 

How could the world look so right when everything was in fact so _wrong_?

No one understood about her and Michael. _No one. No matter what her friends said, everyone thought she was crazy to dump Ronnie for someone who wasn't fit to tie the golden football god's exalted shoelaces, but __they didn't know anything. She saw Michael differently, just as she had seen Ronnie differently. There was much more to both boys than what __they could see._

"I don't care what _they think," Tamsin muttered rebelliously as she stomped across the porch and pulled out her key. "I _don't_. But if I see anyone looking at us cross-eyed one more time, I swear I am going to erupt." She had been successful at keeping her temper to a slow simmer all through and well after midterms, but even the most patient person (Ronnie came to mind yet again) would get sick of all the slighting, pitying, and appraising glances she and Michael were being forced to endure._

The hallway was dim and cool when she let herself into the house. The sounds of Uncle Jon working and John Lennon singing drifted out to her from the study.

"Tam?" Uncle Jon called from the study, raising his voice to be heard over the record player. "Is that you, sweetie?"

"Yes," she called back flatly. No, she didn't care what _they_ thought. Never mind if Uncle Jon was one of _them_.

The click-clack of the typewriter stopped and her uncle emerged from the study. "You're back early." 

Tamsin tossed her jacket onto the coat rack. "I didn't want to ride the bus at night."

"Did Michael see you home?"

"Yeah, he took the bus with me."

Uncle Jon nodded. "I'm sorry I couldn't lend you the car, sweetie, but you know we had that emergency faculty meeting this morning."

That sounded like the perfect opening for the idea she and Michael had been discussing on the way home. "Since we're on the subject of transportation, Uncle Jon, you know Michael has a perfectly good motorcycle he could use to take me home."

"Uh…" He pretended to ponder for a moment, then shook his head. "No."

Anger — an emotion she had been feeling much too often as of late — flared up inside her. "What do you mean, 'no'? All I said was that he has a motorcycle!"

"You also said he could use it to take you home and I know what that means," he replied. "I'm sorry, Tamsin, but the answer is no."

"Why not?"

"It's not safe."

"But we're going to use helmets," Tamsin argued. "You've seen Michael ride. He uses a helmet. He promised Annette he would before she agreed to get him the bike."

"Even then, sweetie, I'm not going to let you ride that thing."

"But he's not Evil Knievel, Uncle Jon."

"Still, the answer is no."

She scowled. She was _so sick of this. "You just don't want me to go out with Michael," she accused._

"I promised your mother I would take care of you," Uncle Jon told her evenly, "and taking care of you means that I will feed, clothe and shelter you, as well as do anything else necessary to keep you alive."

"You call not allowing me to live my life 'keeping me alive'?"

His lips thinned slightly. "Keep the philosophy out of this, Tamsin. You know what I'm talking about. You are my responsibility."

"Well, I hereby release you from your responsibility." She was eighteen, after all, Tamsin reasoned. If people her age could be sent off to war, then they certainly should be allowed to make their own decisions!

Her uncle's eyelids flickered. It was a sure sign that his temper was starting to rise to dangerous levels, but she didn't care. "And I'm afraid you can't do that."

"Why not?"

"You just can't."

_What kind of an answer was that?_ "I thought we were supposed to keep the philosophy out of this!"

"I'm not being philosophical, Tamsin. I am just stating a fact: you are my responsibility and you cannot release me from that."

"Who would have thought someone so cool would turn out to be so uptight?"

Uncle Jon finally scowled. "You will not speak to me in such a fashion, young lady," he told her, sounding every bit as uptight as she said he was. "Apologize."

"Why should I?" Tamsin screamed. "You're not my father!"

_"I **AM YOUR FATHER!"**_


	19. You're Lost, Little Girl

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Col. and Mrs. Bass, and Alison Baines belong to themselves (although I made up Alison's last name), while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. Sloan-Kettering Hospital belongs to…well, it seems to belong to itself, too. 

The title of this chapter belongs to the Doors, _The Prophet_ to Kahlil Gibran and _Antony and Cleopatra_ to William Shakespeare. Jon's "born out of a bottle" remark came from John Lennon, while Michael's "fate surmounted by scorn" quote is from Albert Camus' _The Myth of Sisyphus_. I only own Tamsin, her parents (gasp!), Michael Cardinal, Ma Rose, Ronnie's fish and assorted TC Williams students.

**Technical Notes:** I tried to do a bit of research on chemotherapy and it seemed to already have been around during the early 1970s. So I am, to my knowledge, not being anachronistic.

**Author's Notes:** First of all I'd like to thank everyone who's waited patiently for me to update. Your continued support means a lot to me :D and I have really enjoyed getting to know some of you a lot better. Thank you to Divarane, rebecca and all the repeat reviewers for the lovely, lovely feedback. (Lady Weasley1, Tamsin says good luck with the pageant!)

And last but definitely not least, very special thanks to Emma Dalrymple of the Sugar Quill for her invaluable help and support *hugs* :D Enjoy this chapter, everyone! ~Ara

_Chapter Seventeen — You're Lost, Little Girl _

Tamsin stared at him, stunned. "What?"

Uncle Jon's face turned from red to pasty white in a matter of seconds as he realized what he had just said. He raised a hand weakly, and then dropped it back to his side. "Your mother…she wanted a baby so badly," he told her, his voice much softer now.

And finally, after almost twenty years, the story came out: how Diana Lee had spent her early years in New York going from man to man, all of whom either turned out to be gay or refused to commit to anything serious. After her last relationship ended in disaster, she had plunged into a deep depression and developed a yearning for a child. A child, Diana had reasoned, would be bound to her in the most fundamental and permanent of ways. A child would never lie to her. A child would be for keeps. And Jonathan Graham, her sympathetic neighbor and best friend, had agreed to have the baby with her and sworn to keep her secret forever. 

"So my father…isn't dead?" Tamsin whispered. 

He smiled wanly. "No, sweetie. He's very much alive."

His eyeglasses glinted in the dimming light. _No wonder the registrar had seen a resemblance, she thought woodenly. Everyone said that she looked just like her mother, except that her eyes were slightly rounder, less almond-shaped. Diana had always told her that it was a result of the mixture of her Chinese and white genes, but now she saw that she and her…father…had the exact same eyes. _

_Oh, God, Uncle Jon is my father._

"I know you're not very happy with me right now, Tamsin," he said gently, "but let me assure you that you weren't born out of a bottle on a Saturday night. Diana and I thought things over very carefully. We both wanted you very much, but first we made sure that we could support a child financially and emotionally. And I don't think we've failed you in that."

"So what was this whole stay in Alexandria supposed to be?" Tamsin wanted to know. Since this was the time for earthshaking revelations, she decided to take advantage of the situation and get some of her questions answered. "Some kind of extremely belated father-daughter bonding?" 

Fortunately — or unfortunately, she couldn't decide later on — her father decided to cooperate. "No, sweetie," he replied, sounding weary. "I had really intended to spend a year here to work on my book. Your mother later asked me take you with me because…"

_"Because…?"_ she prompted after he had opened and closed his mouth a few times without saying anything. His voice seemed to have failed him.

"She didn't want you to see her sick," he finally said.

"Sick?" she demanded, her insides drawing up into a tight knot. "What do you mean, sick?"

Her father met her eyes with some effort. "She…your mother has cancer, Tamsin," he told her gently. "It's in her lungs." 

The knot inside her twisted painfully. "No!"

But as she tried to deny it, she also recalled dozens of odd things that she had noted in passing and now made sense. Her mother's quiet spells before the sudden announcement that Tamsin, too, would be moving to Alexandria…the coughing and fatigue that she had heard over the phone…the highly secretive calls that were never for her…her mother's refusals to allow Tamsin to come home, not even for the holidays. 

"Oh, God," Tamsin whimpered. Her father held out a hand to her but she recoiled from him, still reeling from the figurative one-two punch he had just thrown her.

He flinched slightly at the rejection, but his voice remained gentle. "She's OK, sweetie," he said in the same voice he had once used to soothe her when she was sad or hurt. "They discovered it early and Diana's been undergoing this new experimental treatment at Sloan-Kettering that seems to be working."

She managed to be relieved for a moment before again becoming indignant at how much they had kept from her and how long she had gone without knowing anything. "I can't believe you never told me any of this!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe _she_ never told me! I'm her…_I'm your daughter and you lied to me!_"

"I never lied to you, Tamsin." He sounded infuriatingly calm given the present situation. "I just didn't tell you everything."

"Well, what about Mom? _She said she—"_

"Diana had her reasons."

"That's bullshit! First she wanted a child because it would never leave her or lie to her, and then she sent me away and kept me in the dark…" Tamsin sputtered. "That kind of thing is a two-way street, you know! You guys should have been up front with me, too!"

"We couldn't."

"Why not? I'm old enough to handle that kind of news!"

"It doesn't sound like it," her father retorted. 

"I wouldn't have sounded like this if you had sat me down and talked things over with me properly! You could have told me early on that you were my dad, and when Mom found out about the cancer, she could have told me about it—"

"And if you had known about it then, what would you have done? Stayed behind in New York and worried about your mother—"

"I would have stayed, all right; and I would have helped take care of her!"

"She's getting the best care available already," he assured her. "And besides, that's not the kind of life we want for you. You're young; you deserve to have fun and not worry about anything other than your schoolwork. Your mother's illness isn't the kind of thing we want you to be dealing with at this point in your life."

"But I could have helped—"

Her father shook his head sadly. "No, sweetie. Neither of us could have helped."

* * *

_No, we probably couldn't have._

Tamsin lay sprawled on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. The inner maelstrom of horror, worry, disbelief and anger had subsided, leaving her feeling exhausted and empty.

She had lunged for the telephone, she remembered. She had tried to call her mother, intending to demand an explanation, but was unable to get through. The operator told her that no one was picking up on the other end of the line.

_Oh, God, Mom, where are you?_ Tamsin picked up a teddy bear she had brought with her from New York and hugged it tight. _Are you all right?_

Although she was glad she now knew what her mother — her _parents_ — had been keeping from her, she had to admit that she had felt infinitely better a couple of hours ago, when all she had to worry about was Michael.

Now that she was calmer, she could sort of understand why she hadn't been told about her mother's cancer. She still thought her parents had stupidly fooled themselves into thinking they were being noble and self-sacrificing, but a little voice inside her whispered that perhaps her mother thought that, by keeping her illness a secret, she was saving Tamsin from all the worry and sadness. Maybe that was how Tamsin had helped her mother fight her cancer — by helping Diana feel that she was still strong enough to protect her daughter.

Presently, there was a light tap on the door. "Tam?" her father called from outside. "Dinner's ready."

"I don't want any," she called back, rolling over onto her side and tucking the teddy bear under her chin. Her father had won it for her on a trip to Coney Island the summer she turned five.

Her father. 

Tamsin hugged the bear, remembering the many times she had held it at night and wished for a father to replace the one her mother said had died. She used to hug it and lull herself to sleep imagining what life would be like, having a tie-wearing, office-going, pipe-smoking father like her classmates did. She probably wished for one every night for years, until she realized that being fatherless wasn't so bad because she had the man she once called "Uncle Jon" in her life. 

Now it turned out that Uncle Jon had been her real father all along. It felt so _right_, Tamsin thought, like a puzzle piece clicking into place. But something remained horribly wrong because of the way she had found it out, and all the other things she now knew about her mother and why she had been sent to Alexandria.

_You asked to know all that._ _Be careful what you wish for…_

* * *

"Sunshine! Hey, Sunshine!" 

Ronnie's vision blurred. He blinked and realized Petey was waving a hand in front of his face. "What?" he asked as the sights and sounds of the TC Williams cafeteria intruded on his consciousness once more.

"Welcome back, man!" Eddie joked. "Where were you? Reliving your date with Darla last Saturday?"

The blond boy beetled his brows at his friend. "There was _nothing_ worth reliving about that date, bro."

"Naw, he wasn't thinkin' about Darla," Big Julius said with a small smile. He nodded toward where Tamsin was walking out of the lunchroom with Michael. Ronnie had been looking in her direction just a while ago. "You're slippin' again, Sunshine."

"I thought you swore you wouldn't even _look at her anymore!" Blue scolded playfully._

"What's wrong with looking?" Emma demanded. "Y'all are actin' like Tamsin's got the plague or something!"

"Aw, we were just kiddin' around, sugar," Gerry soothed her. 

"And it ain't like we're bad-mouthin' her all over school," Blue added. "We're just tryin' to help Sunshine get over her."

"But I'm alreadyover her," Ronnie said. "I _am_," he insisted when most of his friends scoffed. "I wasn't thinking about…you know, the breakup…I was thinking that she wasn't looking too good."

"All right, Sunshine!" Petey praised, slapping him on the back. "Keep it up and by the end of the week you'll think she's so ugly you won't like her anymore."

It was Sharon's turn to roll her eyes. "That's not what Sunshine meant, Petey."

"He means Tamsin looks kind of…tired, right?" Cat put in, her voice laced with worry

The black boy shrugged. "Well, if she ain't feelin' well, maybe Mikey can cook her up some vegetarian chicken soup or whatever it is his people eat."

Ronnie shook his head. "She doesn't look _sick, man," he said even as he joined in the snickering that greeted Petey's remark. "She looks like…" He gestured ineffectually with his hands, groping for the right words. "She looks like someone turned her world upside down."_

"Ooh, and _you_ know what she looks like when her world gets turned upside down, don't you?" Alan teased with a naughty grin.

"That's not what I meant, either." The blond boy turned red amid a volley of catcalls. "Stop it, you guys. I mean Tamsin looks like she's got something real heavy on her mind."

"She's probably askin' herself why she dumped _you for ol' Mikey," Ryan quipped._

Liz gave him a shove. "This is serious, Ryan."

"Has she spoken to you lately about anything that's bothering her?" Ronnie asked Emma.

"Well, she _was_ kind of mad about how people seemed to keep looking down on Michael," the blonde girl replied slowly, "but you know Tamsin — she ain't the kind of girl to let other people's opinions trouble her for too long."

"No, she isn't," he agreed. "So it must be something else."

"Have _you_ tried talking to her?" Sharon asked him.

"Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. She said she'd been in a pretty bad mood, but wouldn't say why." Ronnie rubbed the nape of his neck, frowning thoughtfully.

"Well, if she wouldn't tell you _then," Blue pointed out, "what makes you think she'll tell you __now? Whatever it is that's botherin' her, Sunshine, it ain't your problem no more."_

"But we're still friends—" he tried to argue, but the big black boy cut him off.

"I know, bro," he said gently, "but that don't mean you're still entitled to know _everything_ that's goin' on in Tamsin's life."

"Ouch," Rev remarked, flinching.

"Truth hurts," Big Julius said.

"Yeah, it does," Ronnie agreed, giving Blue a small smile to show that he wasn't offended at what the other boy had said.

The big black boy gave him a relieved smile and a playful punch on the arm in return. "Tamsin will be OK, man. For what it's worth, she's got Mikey. _He'll_ deal with it."

Out in the side courtyard, Tamsin was sitting with Michael on their usual bench. She was basically watching him eat, having managed only a couple of bites of her sandwich before wrapping the rest back up. She hadn't had much appetite since the beginning of the weekend.

Tamsin sighed and leaned her head on the dark-haired boy's shoulder, slipping her arms around his waist. "I am so tired."

"Mm." He leaned his cheek on her head briefly before turning his concentration back to his sandwich and Kahlil Gibran's _The Prophet, which he read as he ate._

"I wasn't able to write all weekend," she added, hoping that would catch his attention and lead to a conversation about what was bothering her, during which she would be able to share her thoughts and feelings with someone who really cared for her.

It didn't. Instead of asking her what was wrong, he just made a sympathetic noise and stroked her hair a few times. 

She leaned a bit more heavily against him and hugged him a little tighter. "I think I'm coming down with something," Tamsin ventured then.

Michael stopped reading long enough to feel her forehead. "You're not warm," he said absently, going back to his book.

The cigarette he had bummed that day was still tucked in his shirt pocket, but already his clothes smelled of smoke. The scent caused Tamsin to remember her mother and her eyes began to smart. "Well, I still feel rotten," she told him, trying futilely to choke back the catch in her voice. 

"Aw, Tamsin." Finally, he put an arm around her and she snuggled into his embrace gratefully. "Are you having a bad day?"

"No, it's more than that. I—"

"It's never more than that. Things just aren't going your way right now, that's all." He turned his head to kiss her temple. "But they will. Just give it time and everything will work itself out."

_But how much time does my mom have?_ Tamsin wanted to ask, but instead she sighed deeply and said nothing.

"Everything will be all right, Tamsin." Michael reached up and stroked her hair again. "You just have to tough it out and show all those problems that you're stronger than they are. _There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn, remember?" He shook her slightly. "Tell you what, we'll go out for coffee after school today, OK? Coffee—"_

"Tea," Tamsin interjected. She had never liked coffee.

He chuckled. "OK, tea, an hour in the bookstore, and a walk in the park or something. Sounds good?"

She found herself smiling. "Sounds very good," she agreed, straightening up to kiss his cheek. "Thank you, Michael."

"Are you going to eat the rest of your sandwich?"

* * *

The screen door squeaked. "Is that you, Ronnie?" his mother called from the living room.

"Yeah, Mom," he called back as he wiped his feet on the doormat.

"How was the play?" Col. Bass's voice asked.

"Great, Dad," Ronnie replied. He had just gotten back from watching the Drama Club's latest play, _Antony and Cleopatra. "Cat's a shoo-in for the Achievements in Drama Award at graduation."_

"That's nice," Mrs. Bass said. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"No, thanks; my friends and I went to Ma Rose's after the play and grabbed dinner there." 

"Sounds like you had a good time," his father remarked.

"Yeah, I did." 

Ronnie hung up his jacket in the hall closet, wished his parents good night, and trudged upstairs.

He had enjoyed the play, he thought as he let himself into his bedroom, and Alison Baines had been as great a date as she was an English partner. He'd really enjoyed her company.

The after-party at Ma Rose's had been a lot of fun, too. Besides the food and music, the mix of people there had been really good, too. The Titans had enjoyed razzing Rev about the goofy proud-boyfriend smile on his face and Cat's Drama Club friends, who apparently loved to entertain even offstage, had them all in stitches with impressions of the teachers and reenactments of hilarious backstage moments. Even Ma Rose joined in the fun and showed them all how a proper jitterbug was done.

Siddartha and Kamala, the goldfish Tamsin had given him last Christmas, swam in crazy circles inside their bowl when they saw Ronnie. He had forgotten to feed them before leaving that night.

As he dropped a pinch of fish food into the water, Ronnie's thoughts turned to Tamsin. 

_I thought you swore you wouldn't even_ look_ at her anymore!_

He snorted and shook off Blue's admonition. None of his friends knew how to read minds, so he could afford to slip once in a while. Besides, even if someone did catch him thinking about her, it was _his head. He could do what he wanted with it. _

Tamsin had been at the play, too, Ronnie recalled as he flopped onto his bed. He saw her enter the theater with Michael, and later again at the after-party. She had nodded vaguely to him and the Titans, but didn't stop by their booth to say hello. 

She hadn't socialized much at all, sticking to Michael and a group of Drama Club kids, and left the party early. Ronnie supposed that, unlike him, Michael didn't have a car, so the younger boy accompanied Tamsin home on the bus before it got too late. 

However, that didn't explain why she had appeared quiet and withdrawn at the party. 

Something was clearly bothering her. Unfortunately, because she had refused to confide in him, Ronnie had no idea what it was. And because they were now barely speaking (even though they had agreed to remain friends), he was unable to help her.

* * *

_Where was I going again?_

Tamsin looked at her watch, then at her class schedule. She was on her way to study hall.

She looked at the halls around her, trying to get her bearings. Yes, she was on the right floor in the right part of the building.

_Whew._ She raked a hand through her hair. _Get your act together, Tamsin Lee,_ she commanded herself. _The school year is almost over. You can't afford to mess up now. You have to go out with a bang!_

Tamsin knew she had to pull herself together. She had spent the past few weeks in a self-absorbed stupor, coming to terms with the truth about her erstwhile Uncle Jon and wrapped up in worry over her mother. 

Mother and daughter had yet to speak. Tamsin's father told her that Diana had checked into the hospital for something called chemotherapy and it was probably best if she not take phone calls for a while. Chemotherapy sounded painful, from the way he had explained the principles of the treatment. The thought of her mother being stuck in an impersonal, antiseptic hospital with no one but strangers to take care of her made it sound scary, too.

She hugged her books tighter and felt her eyes smart for the thousandth time that day. _Get out of your funk! _she berated herself. _You shouldn't be moping around like this! It's counterproductive! _

Tamsin sighed. _But what else can I do when my mother could be dying miles away from the only family she's got? Oh, Mom, please be OK!_

Presently, a male voice broke into her thoughts, calling her name. To her surprise, it sounded like Petey Jones. "Hey, Tamsin!"

She paused to blink back the stinging tears and paste a polite smile on her face before turning around. It was indeed Petey. "Hi, Petey."

The tall black boy bounced up to her. "Hey there, baby sugar! How ya doin'?"

"Uh, fine," she replied. 

The caution in her voice was not lost on him. "Aw, c'mon, sweetness, I ain't gonna bite ya! Can't two old friends have a normal conversation?"

"We haven't had a 'normal conversation' since…" _Since I broke up with Ronnie._

"And whose fault is that? You been so wrapped up in that new boyfriend of yours you ain't had time for your old friends!"  Petey held up a hand and grinned engagingly when she scowled. "Whoa, hey, I'm just messin' with you, all right? That's my job, remember?" 

"It's more like your mission in life," Tamsin remarked dryly.

"Now _that's_ the Tamsin I remember," he said with a laugh and a playful punch on the arm. "So, how you been? You goin' to the Senior Banquet?" 

She nodded. "How about you?"

"Of course! I ain't got a date yet, though," Petey admitted.

"Why am I not surprised?"

He made a face at her. "Very funny," he said sarcastically. "You goin' with Mikey—I mean, _Michael_, of course, right?"

"That's right," Tamsin replied, bracing herself for the inevitable put-down.

But there was none. Instead, he grinned and asked, "But you'll save a dance for me, won't you?"

"So long as it's really you I'm saving a dance for."

"Of course it's me! Who did you—" Understanding dawned on his face. "Oh, you thought I was gonna give my dance to _Sunshine, didn't you? No way, sweetness!" he laughed. "Sunshine's gonna be busy at the dance — he already got hisself a date. He's going with Alison, that girl he did that English report with."_

"Really? That's great. Alison's a very nice girl." Aware that Petey was closely observing her reaction to the news, Tamsin gave him a wide smile. She couldn't help having a sinking feeling in her stomach, but it was a very small one, practically negligible. She really did think that Alison was a nice person and was genuinely glad that Ronnie was taking her to the dance instead of some brainless bit of arm candy. 

Thankfully, the black boy decided not to discuss the matter any further. "Hey, have you voted for the Senior Awards yet?"

"No, not yet," she admitted. "I…I've been busy."

"Well, you should. You're up for a couple of 'em."

Her eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Yup." Petey gave her a conspiratorial grin. "Hey, I'll vote for you if you vote for me," he suggested, then chuckled. "Naw, just kidding. I'm gonna vote for you anyway." He checked his watch. "Oops, gotta go. See you around," he said, patting her shoulder before walking off.

"See you," she called after him. 

Tamsin watched him go, wishing he had hugged her. She really needed a hug.


	20. Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose

**Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans and Ronnie's date, Alison, belong to themselves ;) while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans belong to Disney. This chapter is named after the 1973 song sung by Tony Orlando and Dawn. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" belongs to Iron Butterfly and the quotations later in this chapter were taken from the Elton John song "Tiny Dancer." I only own Tamsin and Michael, their parents, Midnight Train and assorted TC Williams High students._**

**Author's Notes: Sorry about the delay, I've been really busy at work _ The next chapter is about halfway through, though! Thanks to the members of the Sugar Quill Writer's Workshop 2 for their invaluable input, and to Eponine42 and all the repeat reviewers for their fabulous feedback!**

_Chapter Eighteen — Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose_

The TC Williams High School Class of 1973 held its Senior Banquet on the night of May 5th. It was held again in the school gym, which was decorated in red, black and gold. TC Williams pennants, cardboard cutouts of graduation caps and blown-up photographs of significant school events over the past year decorated the walls. A large banner that read "CONGRATULATIONS, SENIORS!" hung over the stage, which was empty save for a couple of microphone stands, some amplifiers and a drum kit with the words "Midnight Train" stenciled onto the bass drum in dark blue letters.

"That's kind of premature, isn't it?" Alison asked, nodding toward the banner. She and Ronnie had just entered the gym after exchanging greetings with their favorite teachers and getting their copies of the _Pantheon_, the TC Williams yearbook.

Ronnie grinned. "On the other hand, that might just force the teachers to let us all pass."

The Titans who had arrived ahead of them had taken a table near the stage. "Over here!" Blue hollered, standing up and waving. 

"Hi, everyone," Ronnie said as he escorted his date over. After a round of _Hey, Sunshine_'s from his friends, he turned to the girl at his side. "Alison, you already know Blue and Gerry from English class, right?"

"I sure do," she replied. "Hi, guys."

"And over there's Julius and Petey."

Alison smiled. "Oh, I know them, too, from my other classes."

"Hi, Alison," Petey said to her. "I'll give you back your Physics notes on Monday, all right?"

"Well, I see that Petey knows you pretty well," Ronnie chuckled. He thought the black boy looked a little put out. Maybe it was because of the cheesy light blue tuxedo that he was wearing that evening. "And then we've got Emma, Sharon, Annie and…?" He looked questioningly at the petite, slender girl seated beside Petey, the only stranger at the table.

"Bess," she supplied. 

"Hi, Bess, pleased to meet you," Ronnie told her, noting with amusement that she was wearing light blue, too. It seemed that she had somehow been able to wrestle Petey into a matching tux. "Everyone, this is Alison."

"Hi, Alison," Emma said with a friendly smile. "You look very nice. That shade of yellow suits you."

The brown-haired girl smiled back. "Thank you," she replied, self-consciously smoothing her soft yellow skirt as Ronnie held her chair out for her. 

"It's the color of…"

"It's the color of _sunshine!" Blue cracked, making everyone laugh._

Just then, Alan, Rev and their dates arrived, yearbooks in hand. Everyone spent the first moments at the dance signing each other's yearbooks and talking about the upcoming final exams (Sharon thought the Senior Banquet should have been held after finals) and their plans for the summer. Some people also stopped by to say hi and ask the Titans to sign their yearbooks.

Tamsin arrived just after Gerry and Emma returned from having their picture taken. Petey, of course, was the first to notice. "Hey, she's lookin' good."

"Who?" Ronnie asked, but all he got was a table napkin flung in his face. "Oh, _jeez_, Blue!"

He sputtered, dropped the linen square in his lap, and looked up just in time to see that Tamsin had arrived. She was wearing a dark pink dress and high-heeled gold sandals. Her long hair hung loose to her waist.

Petey whistled loudly and appreciatively, giving Tamsin a thumbs-up when she turned to investigate the sound. She smiled back and waved with her left hand, towing Michael along with her right. "I can't believe they let him in," Lisa said when the pair walked over to a table on the other side of the dance floor. "He isn't even wearing a tie!"

The dark-haired boy was wearing a black tuxedo jacket and matching pants, but instead of a proper shirt and bow tie, he had a bohemian-looking shirt with billowing ruffles on the front and cuffs. "It's called a poet's shirt," Cat explained. 

Ronnie chuckled. "Boone would never have allowed him on the bus."

"He wouldn't have let _you on either," Gerry told him. "Not the way you dressed when you first came to Alexandria. Do y'all remember?"_

"Yeah, and we also remember what happened to _you when you called Sunshine on it, Bertier!" Blue laughed._

Gerry flushed, but came right back with a do-you-remember of his own. "Oh, and do you remember the first time you taught us the warm-up dance?" he asked, miming Blue crashing into something in the middle of his dance.

"Well, y'all learned it, didn't you?" the big black boy retorted over Petey's boisterous laughter.

The exchange gave rise to a round of do-you-remembers, after which the Titans and their dates hit the buffet table for some food. It was kind of hard pushing Gerry's wheelchair along while balancing a plate and cup of punch at the same time, but they managed not to spill anything.

"Do you suppose someone spiked the punch?" Petey asked when everyone had finished eating.

A wide-eyed Rev put down his now-empty cup. "Petey, you _didn't_."

"Oh, _I_ didn't spike the punch, Rev," the other boy replied. "I was just wonderin' if someone had."

"Well, couldn't you have wondered whether the punch was spiked _before_ we had all drunk it?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

Presently, Emma got to her feet. "Excuse me, y'all, but I'm goin' to say hi to Tamsin."

"All right, sugar," Gerry told her. "I'll see you in a bit."

"Wait up, Emma," Sharon said. "I'm goin' with you." Both she and Cat stood up.

"Hey, hold on, are _you goin' with them, too?" Petey asked Alison, who had also risen from her chair. _

"Sure," the brown-haired girl replied with a smile and a shrug. "Why not?"

"Yeah, why not?" Ronnie chimed in. "Tamsin and I are still friends, so there's nothing wrong if Alison—"

"Why don't _you_ go say hi to Tamsin, then?" Blue challenged.

The blond boy felt his face start to flush, but he managed to put on a hurt expression. "What, you don't want me to hang around here and talk to you?"

"Well, this discussion don't look like it's gonna end anytime soon," Cat observed wryly to the other girls. "Let's go, y'all."

Tamsin saw the girls coming toward her and got up to greet them. "Hi!"

"Hi, Tamsin!" Emma replied. "Hi, Michael," she added. 

Tamsin beamed as Michael acknowledged the greeting with a polite wave. "You all look great!" she told her friends.

But instead of looking pleased, Cat gave her a reproachful look. "Girl, you've been in Virginia for almost a whole year and you _still_ can't say 'y'all' properly?"

"OK, _y'all_ look great," Tamsin repeated dutifully.

"That's better," the black girl said.

That was when Tamsin became aware of Alison standing uncertainly off to one side. She turned to the brown-haired girl with a smile. "Hi, Alison. It's nice to see you."

"Same here," Alison replied.

"She's here with Sunshine," Sharon said, drawing repressive looks from Emma and Cat. "What? It's the truth, ain't it?"

Tamsin chuckled. "Oh, I know she's here with Ronnie — Petey told me. I'm sure you'll have a good time, Alison," she said to Ronnie's date. "Ronnie's a very nice guy."

"Yeah, he is," the other girl agreed, relief obvious in her voice.

"Anyone want to go to the bathroom?" Cat asked brightly.

* * *

The bathroom was empty when they entered and the girls took full advantage of the unlimited access to the mirrors. "Good thing all the other girls seem to be eatin' slowly," Sharon observed as she inspected her reflection. "We've got this place to ourselves until people start comin' in to fix their makeup and stuff."

"Good," Cat said. She made sure the tiled sink was clean and dry before leaning her hip against it. "At least we've got some time to hang out with each other before everyone else starts getting' in the way."

Emma finished retouching her lipstick and turned from the mirror to give Tamsin an appreciative smile. "Ooh, Tamsin, I didn't get a good look at your dress earlier! I love it!"

"Thanks." The dark-haired girl smiled in modest acknowledgement of the compliment and looked down at her dress. It had a rather low scoop neck, skinny straps and an asymmetrical hem that ended at her knee on one side but brushed her ankle on the other. "My mom sent it to me for Christmas."

"It's very unique," Alison told her. "Your mother has great taste."

"How is she, by the way?" Emma asked. Her golden hair caught the light as she tilted her head.

Tamsin's mouth stretched into what she hoped was a blithe smile. "Fine, just fine," she replied, hoping her friends would leave it at that. She knew she could tell them everything (and that it would probably help if she got her feelings out in the open), but this was neither the place nor the time to tell people about her mother.

To her great relief, not only did her friends not press her for more information, but they also changed the subject. "Do any of y'all have plans for after the dance?" Cat asked.

Sharon shrugged. "No, Julius will probably just take me home. I'll probably be too tired to go out again after this is over." 

Tamsin chuckled. "Julius is right, Sharon, you _don't have much stamina for a sister," she said, dodging the not-so-gentle nudge the tall black girl aimed toward her._

There was a short silence and Emma looked around her, a sure sign that she had some juicy gossip to share. "Well, _I heard Anthony Holden got a motel room for tonight," she told them in a hushed whisper. "He probably thinks he'll get lucky."_

Cat snorted. "He's here with Melissa Bateman — who needs luck?" she scoffed, then instantly looked heavenwards with a contrite expression. "I'm sorry, that wasn't a very nice thing to say."

The other girls exchanged amused glances (Rev's influence was showing) and Alison patted Cat's arm comfortingly. "It's the truth, anyway," she said with a smile.

"A motel room!" Tamsin shuddered. "It sounds so…seedy."

Sharon shrugged. "Better than the back seat of your boyfriend's car."

"What do you know about the back seat of a car?" Emma wanted to know.

"Nothing!" the other girl replied, sounding a bit flustered. "Well, _I_ haven't done _it in the back seat of a car, if that's what you're askin'," she added. "I just heard some couples do it there and I think it's just the most unromantic place in the world. I mean, who wants to get it on with all his junk around you?"_

"Maybe the guy cleans his car in preparation for the occasion."

"Well, still!" Sharon insisted, then it was her turn to peer at Emma. "And what do _you_ know about what a guy does 'in preparation for the occasion,' Emma?"

Tamsin laughed, missing the blonde girl's reply. Unlike Miranda's boring lunchtime gossip sessions and Jeannie's idiotic lecture at Homecoming, she was actually enjoying the time she was spending in the girls' bathroom tonight. It kind of reminded her of the whispered confidences she used to hear back at her convent school in New York. How sheltered and oblivious she had been to everything back then, Tamsin thought. She had come a long way during her stay in Alexandria.

"Well, Rev and I definitely don't have plans like that," Cat was saying, "and I'm proud to say so. Maybe some people like to brag that they've had sex with their boyfriends, but I'd rather brag about how my boyfriend sees me as a person instead of a—well, you know."

Alison and Tamsin exchanged smiles. "Sweet apples," they said in unison.

Sharon chuckled. "I know what y'all mean. I'm in Graham's other class."

"So, I take it y'all don't have plans like that, either?" Emma asked coyly.

"Of course not," Tamsin said, sneaking a glance at Alison. She noted (with some relief, it must be admitted) that the brown-haired girl was shaking her head, too.

* * *

Ronnie saw them come out of the bathroom. Tamsin was smiling, so apparently nothing bad had gone down between her and Alison.

This was his chance.

He waited until she had separated from the other girls before charging up to her. "Hey, Tamsin."

She looked up and smiled at him. "Hi, Ronnie," she replied. There was a warmth in her voice that hadn't been there in ages.

"Having a good time? Good," Ronnie said when she nodded. He smiled when he spied something familiar glittering around her wrist, half-hidden by a white carnation corsage. "That's a very nice bracelet."

Tamsin laughed (another sound he had not heard in a long time) and twisted the charm bracelet he had given her around her wrist. "It matched my shoes," she explained.

"Seriously, though," he told her, "you look great." She was thinner than he remembered and he thought she looked tired, but a smile and a sparkle in her eye worked wonders.

The pink that bloomed in her cheeks matched her dress. "Thank you."

When she made to move on, Ronnie held his yearbook out to her. "Oh, before you go, will you sign my yearbook?"

"Only if you sign mine," she replied. "Come on, I left it at my table."

He followed her to a table situated near the right side of the stage. A couple of people he didn't know very well were there, but there was no sign whatsoever of Tamsin's date. "Hey, where's Michael?" he asked as they sat down.

Tamsin gave him her copy of the _Pantheon and opened her little gold bag to look for a pen. "Probably sneaked outside for a smoke."_

Ronnie grimaced. "He _smokes?"_

She chuckled, making a small grimace of her own. "It's not so bad if you sit upwind from him," she said as she opened the yearbook to the page with her picture on it. She looked thoughtfully at the blank space underneath her name for a moment, then began to write.

He watched her write. Tamsin wore the same frown of concentration as she did when she was doing some pretty serious writing. He hoped it was a good sign, that she was putting down something meaningful (and friendly) instead of something generic like _Have a good summer_.

Tamsin had just finished writing and was sliding both yearbook and pen over to him when Michael returned. "Hi there," the dark-haired boy said in his soft voice, sliding into the chair on Tamsin's other side. 

She smiled at him. "Hi, Michael."

Ronnie nodded cordially. "Michael." 

"Sunshine," Michael replied with a nod of his own. 

Just then, the dance committee walked onstage. The gym fell silent as Jenny Morello selected a microphone and spoke into it. "Hi, everyone! Are y'all havin' a good time?" She beamed when she got an enthusiastic _yes_ in reply. "Glad to hear it! Well, could y'all return to your seats for a minute so we can hand out the Senior Awards?"

Ronnie gave Tamsin an apologetic glance at the announcement. He had to go and he hadn't signed her yearbook yet. "Do you mind if I take your yearbook home with me?"

She smiled. "Not at all." 

He smiled back. "I promise I'll give it back to you on Monday."

"Sure."

"Cool. See you Monday, then."

He bid her goodbye and returned to his table. "Did she sign your yearbook?" Alison asked. 

"Yeah, she did," Ronnie replied as he sat down next to he. Fortunately, Blue was too busy talking to Annie to put him through the third degree.

He leaned back in his chair and opened his yearbook, eager to read what Tamsin had written.

_Dear Ronnie,_ her message read, _This has definitely been a year to remember, and you had a very big part in that. Thanks to you, I lived, laughed and learned a lot…and, yes, I loved a lot, too. _

Something lit up inside him when he read those words. They _had_ gone through a lot during their short time together, and he was glad that she was acknowledging that.

_I wish you all the success in the coming years. Don't forget to look me up if you're ever in New York — preferably when you're a star quarterback in the NFL, so you can take me out to dinner at Le Cirque. Ha-ha, I'm just kidding…about the Le Cirque part, anyway. Seriously, if you're ever in New York, let us know!_

_Your friend, Tamsin._

* * *

The first Senior Awards to be handed out were those that recognized the students' achievements in different fields, sort of like a students' version of the Achievement Awards that were going to be handed out at graduation.

There were two winners in each category, one guy and one girl. Jenny, who seemed to be acting as emcee that night, called teachers onstage to hand out the prizes.

The first winner from the Titans' table was Big Julius, who was voted Most Athletic along with the goalie of the girls' field hockey team. 

Gerry led the applause as Coaches Boone and Yoast presented the winners with trophies. "It's plastic," Big Julius reported as he returned to his seat and passed his prize around.

"It's also only about as big as my fist," Petey chuckled. "Some prize."

Next, Sharon won the Most Intellectual award together with Danny Fenster. Everyone cheered appreciatively as Big Julius let out a piercing whistle while his girlfriend was receiving her award. 

Tamsin applauded hard for her friend, smiling as she watched Big Julius pick Sharon right up and give his girlfriend a big kiss the minute she returned to the Titans' table. For a while she wished she was sitting with Emma and the others, cheering on the Titans and their friends, but then figured she could always just congratulate Sharon later or on Monday.

There was a standing ovation when it was announced that Gerry had been voted one of those Most Likely to Succeed. The winners were presented with plastic bows and arrows. "Why'd Gerry get this if he won Most Likely to Succeed?" Blue wondered, shooting an arrow and narrowly missing a passing teacher.

"So he can aim for the stars?" Alan suggested.

Everyone at the table looked at him, not quite sure whether to laugh or agree. "You know," Cat finally said, "that is so corny it's probably the right answer."

The dance committee handed out toy globes for TC Williams High's three exchange students, and then the awards got funnier and more offbeat. They gave out the Most Shy awards first, "so the winners will get it over and done with," Jenny explained. The winners were presented with joke glasses, each with a big nose and mustache attached, and then there were big red clown noses for the students voted Most Humorous. 

Everyone laughed as Petey, who was one of the winners, put his on and talked his co-winner and the Most Shy winners into donning their prizes and posing for pictures. "Wow, Petey!" Big Julius exclaimed as the other boy returned to their table still wearing his prize. "That is a _big_ improvement over how you used to look!"

Petey gave his friend a narrow glance over his big red nose and Sharon stepped in to defend her boyfriend. "Aw, come on, Petey; you made fun of Ju's prize, didn't you? He's just evenin' up the score!"

It was no surprise that Tamsin was one of those voted Most Individualistic, and that Petey went up onstage a second time to receive his Class Wolf award. (Jeannie won as Class Flirt.) 

However, it did come as a surprise to Tamsin when she found that she had also been voted Best Dressed. "Why wouldn't you win?" Michael asked, holding up her medal (a large gold-foil price tag with "$1.00" written on its face) to get a better look at it. "You've got more style in your little finger than all the girls in this room put together."

She giggled self-consciously. "Thanks."

He leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Just calling it as I see it."

Just then, Tamsin glanced at her father. He saw her looking and gave her a small smile. She jerked her gaze away quickly and looked down. They had not really spoken since the night he told her the truth about him and her mother.

The next thing she knew, Ronnie and Miranda were onstage, receiving their awards for Mr. and Ms. TC Williams. She managed to join in the laughter and applause as each of them was crowned, draped with a sash, and presented with a bouquet of paper roses.

Midnight Train came onstage after the awarding was over and Ronnie and Miranda opened the dancing. "This is embarrassing," Ronnie mumbled as they swayed in the middle of the dance floor to Carole King's "Some Kind of Wonderful." 

"It's not so bad," she replied with a small smile. "At least I finally got to dance with you."

"We never did go dancing when we were going out, did we?"

"No. This isn't quite the way I had imagined dancing with you would be like, though."

"Because everyone's watching?"

Miranda shrugged, transferring her flowers to her other hand. Ronnie was still holding his, too, so dancing was awkward. "Yeah, that's one thing."

He returned to Alison when the song was over. "Want to dance?" he asked as he gave her his flowers.

"Maybe later," she replied, indicating for him to sit down in the empty chair next to her. He sank into it gratefully as the band began to play a faster number. "How was the dance?"

"OK. I didn't, you know…it wasn't anything special—"

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say," Alison murmured, her cheeks pink.

"No, I mean…it was OK. Miranda and I — you know we used to date, right? We talked. And it was…" Ronnie shrugged. "It was all right. Like talking to an old friend."

"Oh. Now, _that's_ nice."

He nodded, smiling. "Yeah."

There were already quite a few couples on the dance floor when they got up to dance. "Hey, hey!" Gerry called out as Ronnie and Alison joined the other Titans and their dates on the dance floor. "Look who's here!"

"Goodness gracious, Sunshine got up to dance twice in one year!" Alan joked. "Someone had better take a picture this time!"

The Titans laughed and Ronnie made a face at the wiry blond boy. "Very funny. Just shut up and dance, will you?"

They danced in a big group to a number of fast songs before a slow song came on and everyone began to pair off. "The band's pretty good," Alison remarked as she stepped into Ronnie's arms.

"They're a welcome change from Brian Richter & the Tremors," he agreed. Midnight Train didn't play as much Motown stuff as the other band did, but his friends didn't seem to mind. He and Alison chuckled as Petey dragged Bess by in a comical tango.

Tamsin laughed, too, when she saw Petey and Bess. She waved as the black boy tangoed past, then leaned her head back on Michael's shoulder, humming happily when his arms tightened around her. 

_Ballerina, you must have seen her_

_Dancing in the sand_

_And now she's in me, always with me_

_Tiny dancer in my hand…_

"You're so beautiful," Michael murmured.

"So are you," she replied, reaching up to trace the curve of his ear.

_Hold me close now, tiny dancer_

_Count the headlights along the highway_

_Lay me down in sheets of linen_

_You had a busy day today…_

They swayed lazily as the band played on. Toward the end of the song, Michael leaned his cheek against Tamsin's, his breath fanning warmly over her hair as he whispered in her ear. "Let's get out of here."

"Look," Ronnie stammered to Alison when the song ended, "since this seems to be a night for tying up loose ends, would you mind if I ask Tamsin to dance?"

"Not at all," she replied, smiling her understanding. The smile then widened into a grin. "So long as you let _me ask my ex-boyfriend!"_

He grinned back. "It's a deal."

Ronnie escorted Alison off the floor and looked around for Tamsin, but all he saw of the dark-haired girl was her back as she and Michael left the gym.

* * *

"Welcome to our humble abode," Michael announced as he unlocked and opened the door to the Cardinals' apartment. "It's not much, but it's home."

He switched on a light and Tamsin stepped inside. "Won't Annette worry when she goes to pick us up and doesn't find us there?" she asked.

"No, she's cool," Michael assured her as he helped her with her coat. "She'll figure out that we got ourselves home. Have a seat."

She nodded and walked over to the rusty brown couch, picking her way gingerly through the discarded newspapers, clothing and miscellaneous items strewn in small heaps all over the floor. "Sorry about the mess," Michael apologized, closing the door.

"It's not so bad," Tamsin replied, resisting the urge to brush off the couch before sitting down upon it. She had never visited the Cardinals' before and was privately rather taken aback at the clutter, but she figured that they just weren't big on housekeeping. Her mother wasn't, either. 

"Want something to drink? We've got some green tea."

She smiled. "No, thanks. I'm set."

Michael sat on the couch with her and turned on the television. He switched it off again when they couldn't find anything worth watching. "Let's just listen to some records."

"All right."

Tamsin watched him flip through a stack of LPs and suddenly remembered the first time she had gone to the Hill with Ronnie. He had put on some soft music, apparently in the hopes of getting her "in the mood." But when Michael turned back from the turntable, she found that he had decided to put on some Iron Butterfly. "Great song," she remarked as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" began to growl out of the speakers.

He nodded and sat back down. "Yeah. You sure you don't want a drink?"

"Yes, I'm sure." She looked at her hands, suddenly uneasy. "Thanks for going to the Senior Banquet with me," she said. "It was a pretty good dance, wasn't it?"

Michael gave her a small smile. "Yeah, it was. Thank you for inviting me." He leaned over to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear, his arm coming to rest around her shoulders. "You don't mind if I don't return the favor and ask _you_ to the Junior Prom, do you? I mean, I wasn't really planning on going. There's too much schoolwork to do."

Tamsin smiled back. "That's OK."

"However, I have time to change my mind, and I just might." With his other hand, he stroked a finger down her arm, then reached up to cup her cheek. "Because you're so beautiful."

And Michael kissed her, his lips soft and sure against hers. Tamsin thrilled when his arms went around her, leaning into the warmth and intimacy of the embrace. It seemed like ages since anyone had hugged her.

She stiffened when his hand went to her breast, but relaxed again when it slid down to her waist, drawing her closer against him. 

Then she felt his hand on her bare leg, just slightly above the knee on the side where her dress was shorter. 

Tamsin's eyes popped open. "Michael, I think—" _You think? You're not sure? "Michael, __stop."_

But Michael didn't listen. "You're so beautiful," he mumbled against her throat, his hand traveling further up her thigh and under her skirt. 

"I know, but—" She was no stranger to fooling around, but she had never let Ronnie go _there_.

"I love you so much," he said then, but instead of sounding like something special and meaningful, it sounded like a flimsy plea for her to let him get into her pants.

"Well, if you loved me, you'd stop." Tamsin squirmed against him, trying to dislodge his hand, but it was creeping steadily up her leg and toward a very dangerous place.

_We don't have to do anything if it makes you uncomfortable._

"Stop it, Michael!" She was flat on her back on the couch now and Michael's hand was cupping her rear, groping for the waistband of her panties. _"NO! MICHAEL, I SAID NO!_"


	21. No One to Depend On

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Ronnie's date Alison, and Ellie (the girl in the hallway) belong to themselves, the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ to Disney, the Incredible Hulk to Marvel Comics, and the Twilight Zone to Rod Serling. The nickname "Scarface" is taken from the famous American gangster, Al Capone. Band-Aid is a registered trademark of Johnson & Johnson.

The "Kamala" quote in Ronnie's yearbook message and the names of his goldfish come from _Siddartha_ by Hermann Hesse. The lyrics to the song "Fool In Love" belong to Ike & Tina Turner, and the title of this chapter to Santana. I only own Tamsin, her parents, and their house. OK, fine, I own Michael, too, but I take no responsibility for him being a jerk.

**Author's Notes:** At last, another update! I'm sorry I'm taking so long, everyone, but the past few months have been toxically busy. I also lost quite a few of my fanfics in a computer glitch (fortunately, this one survived) and have been working on reconstructing my lost stories in addition to writing this one :( I'm glad everyone's still interested in this story, though. Many thanks to everyone who left reviews — jen, curlysara26, Bec/AnGeLKiSsEs2, beautyqueen321, Heidi, Mialana, Cassie, Ella, and all the repeat reviewers — and heck, thanks, too, to the people who keep reading even without reviewing ^_^

Thanks also to the brilliant ladies of the SQ Workshop 2 and to Livia Liana for their valuable input to this chapter. 

_Chapter Nineteen — No One to Depend On_

_This isn't happening._

For a while Tamsin was tempted to believe that this was all a bad dream…that she was watching the entire thing on TV…that this was happening to someone else.

But this wasn't TV. It _was_ happening, and it was happening to _her_. Michael groping clumsily for the waistband of her panties was very real. He was taking liberties with her body. 

_Her_ body. 

_No!_

She took a deep breath as a cleansing rage began to run through her veins, burning away the panic and confusion that had clouded her mind.

And she screamed.

_"I SAID NO! GET OFF ME!" _

Tamsin began to fight back in earnest. She rocked and wriggled, trying to throw him off of her; one hand holding her clothing in place, the other scrabbling around on the floor for something — _anything — she could use to defend herself._

Her free hand closed over something hard and curved and she brought it up swiftly, catching Michael in the side of the head.

_"Ow! Shit!"_ He swore and rolled off her, one hand pressed to the right side of his face. The blow had opened up a small cut on his cheekbone.

Tamsin scrambled off the couch, tottering on her high-heeled sandals, the umbrella she had picked up now held out before her like a sword. "I said _no_, you asshole!" 

"Goddammit, you busted me open!" Michael complained, adjusting his eyeglasses and scowling at the thin smears of blood on his fingers.

"Good!" She hurriedly snatched up her purse and coat and backed toward the door. "And I'll kill you if you ever come near me again!"

He made no move to run after her but she rushed out of the apartment anyway, slamming the door behind her. Tamsin then rushed down the stairs as quickly as she could while hustling into her coat, almost tripping a few times. 

Thank goodness she had enough for bus fare. Her mother had told her to start carrying the extra when she had started going out with Ronnie, but she hadn't needed it until now.

_Tamsin, I can't just leave you standing in the street all by yourself._

_I'll be fine._

_But you don't have an umbrella._

Her hand tightened around the handle of the umbrella still clutched in her hand. "I do now."

* * *

It wasn't until after Tamsin had gotten safely home, run a bath and scrubbed herself clean of Michael's filth that the adrenaline wore off and reaction set in.

A welter of anger, relief, disappointment and shame welled up inside her and she choked out a sob. Her face crumpled as tears slid down her cheeks, mingling with the droplets of water that were already there.

How could she have been so _wrong_? Michael had seemed perfect in the beginning: he was intelligent, a writer and a free spirit. She had bent over backwards to please him. And all she got in return was the painful revelation that, for all his artistic sensibilities, he was still the worst kind of pig at heart.

_He didn't even clean his living room in preparation for the occasion._

At least nothing had happened, Tamsin consoled herself when her crying had stopped. She took cold comfort in the fact that she had retained enough of herself to not give him everything, and she had fought back when he had tried to take it.

She leaned against the back of the bathtub, resting her head on the rim. The still-warm water enveloped her like a hug.

Tamsin's gaze wandered around the small, rather dim bathroom. The dusky pink dress she had worn to the dance lay in one corner, wadded up into a ball. She shuddered as she looked at it. She was never going to wear that dress again. Her mother was welcome to have it for keeps.

Fresh tears threatened at the thought of her mother, but Tamsin managed to keep them back. "Don't fall apart," she muttered to herself. "If Mom can deal with cancer, then you should be able to deal with something like this. _Don't fall apart._"

A tap on the door made her sit up in the bathtub. "Tam?" her father called through the door. He had apparently just gotten back from the dance. "Is that you?"

"Yes," she called back. Her voice sounded unnaturally high and shaky to her ears.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice. "You and Michael left early."

"Yes. I–I was tired."

"Are you OK?"

_No, I'm not OK._ Tamsin's face crumpled, but she fought to keep her voice even. "I'm fine. I just wanted to…soak a bit."

"Oh, all right. Don't stay in there too long — you know you hate it when you come out all wrinkled."

"I won't." 

_Don't fall apart._

* * *

"Come on, Sunshine, spill it," Petey wheedled. "What happened after the dance?"

"I already told you," Ronnie replied, intent on executing an oblique single whip. "I dropped Alison off at her house, kissed her good night, and went home. That's it."

"Was it a good kiss?"

He blushed. "Shut up, Petey."

"Come on. On a scale of one to ten…"

"Eleven, all right?" he said loudly. "Twelve point five."

"Whoo-ee—_hey_!" Petey exclaimed as Tamsin brushed past, jostling him. "Watch it, sweetness!" he called after her, but she walked on without an apology or even a backward glance. He turned back to Ronnie. "D' you think she heard us talking about Alison?"

No, she hadn't. Tamsin hadn't heard a thing. The Monday-morning chatter going on around her was nothing more than a dull, faraway hum as she marched toward the school.

She spied Michael sitting on the front steps, reading. The familiar look of intense concentration on his face made her heart contract painfully. A part of her still thought the expression made him look adorably boyish and mature at the same time.

He stretched his legs out and turned a page as Tamsin walked toward him. Michael was lounging around as if it were just another ordinary Monday, she thought. As if everything was A-OK. 

But things _weren't_ OK. The umbrella in her hand and the small cut on his face, which he hadn't bothered hiding with a Band-Aid, were stark reminders of that.

Tamsin squared her shoulders as fresh hurt and anger coursed through her. She and Michael were through, and she was not going to cry about it. She was not going to pine after someone who had treated her the way he had. She was going to neatly sever all ties with him and fight — no, _overcome the pain, the way her mother was overcoming cancer._

She stopped right in front of him, purposely blocking his light, and Michael looked up. He met her gaze squarely, gray eyes cool and disinterested behind his glasses, and for a while Tamsin was strongly tempted to hit him a few more times with the umbrella. She settled for thrusting it right in his face, which made him flinch in a most satisfying way, and dropping it into his lap just as he was reaching up to take it.

Ronnie and Petey, who had witnessed the exchange (if it could be called that), watched her immediately turn away and walk into the school building, alone. Michael made no move to follow her. 

"What's up with _them_?" Petey wondered.

* * *

If he were anything like those self-proclaimed psychics back in California, Ronnie would have said that there was a lot of chaos in Tamsin's aura that day. But seeing as how he wasn't, he settled for just saying that she was behaving strangely.

Tamsin had been acting like she was troubled about something for some time now, of course, but today she seemed to have completely shut herself off from everyone. Emma reported that they had barely spoken in homeroom, and whenever Ronnie saw her in the halls during the day, Tamsin was alone. 

The weirdest thing was that she seemed to be avoiding Michael as well, and he wasn't falling all over himself to talk to _her, either. "Looks like they had some kind of falling-out," Rev observed as the Titans and their girlfriends left the cafeteria that afternoon. Michael, also on his way out, had just walked past them. Tamsin was not with him._

"Looks like Scarface _fell out_ of somewhere," Gerry cracked, making the other boys laugh. They had all seen the angry red cut marring the dark-haired boy's face.

"Or someone hit him," Big Julius remarked. "You think Tamsin did that?"

"Why should we care?" Blue asked, glaring repressively at his friends.

"Because if she did, he must have done something pretty nasty to deserve it," Emma told him with a glare of her own.

"And Tamsin _does_ seem really pissed about something today," Petey chimed in. "Pardon my language," he added when Rev nudged him.

"Notice it's not _me_ talking about Tamsin this time," Ronnie told Blue with a small smile. The big black boy replied with a disgruntled frown.

Fortunately for Blue, the subject was soon changed when the girls excused themselves to go to the bathroom. "What the heck do they _do_ in there that they always have to go together?" Big Julius wondered.

"Complain about their boyfriends?" Alan suggested with a grin.

"Naw, Sharon would never do that."

"I think they make spaghetti in there," Petey remarked.

"That's weird, Petey," Gerry told him.

"Hey, it's possible. The girls' bathroom is like the Twilight Zone."

Ronnie only half-listened to the speculations about the strange things that girls did in their bathroom, as he was still busy puzzling over Tamsin's behavior. Blue was right, it didn't have anything to do with him anymore, but if Michael had anything to do with it…

It hit him like a bucketful of cold water just as they reached Gerry's locker. _"Shit!"_

_"Sunshine!"_ Rev admonished.

"Aw, leave him alone, Rev," Petey told the other boy. "There ain't no girls around to hear him this time—hey, Sunshine, where ya goin'?" 

Ronnie stopped at the sound of his name and realized that he had walked off while Petey had been talking, leaving his friends behind. "I'm gonna break Michael Cardinal's legs."

"Why? What did Mikey do…besides steal away your girl, that is?"

A scowling Gerry slammed his locker door shut. "Use your head, Petey," he said, starting to wheel down the hallway toward Ronnie. "Tamsin's mad, Mikey has a cut on his face…things obviously got _physical_ between those two."

"But it doesn't look like anything happened," Rev pointed out.

"Well, he still tried _something_," Ronnie declared as Gerry, followed by the other Titans, caught up with him. He pinned Blue with a pointed look. "And don't say she deserved it."

"I wasn't going to," the big black boy told him.

He smiled briefly, glad that his friend wasn't carrying his grudge too far. "Good." 

They continued down the hall with Ronnie purposefully leading the way, eyes darting left and right in search of his prey. The corridors were littered with students who were making use of the remaining lunch period to catch up on gossip or make last-minute bathroom and locker stops. Their cheerful chatter and activity contrasted starkly with the anger spreading like lava flow throughout his entire body.

_I shouldn't be doing this,_ Ronnie thought. Whatever had happened between Tamsin and Michael had nothing to do with him. But she was his friend and Michael had hurt her. Michael had to pay.

The Titans found him in the corridor leading to the library.

A pretty girl with reddish-blond hair whom Ronnie recognized dimly from his Social Studies class looked up from rummaging around in her purse to smile at them as they passed. "Hi, guys!" she greeted them brightly. 

"Hi, Ellie," Ronnie replied.

The next thing he knew, Ellie was screaming. He had stepped around her to haul Michael up and shove him into a nearby bank of lockers. 

The crash was tremendously satisfying. _"What did you do to Tamsin, you little prick?"_ he growled, his fists still bunched in the other boy's shirt.

"Nothing she didn't want," Michael retorted.

"But you didn't stop when she didn't want it anymore, did you? _Did you?_" Ronnie demanded, giving him a shake.

"Get your hands off me, asshole!"

_"Did you stop when she asked you to?"_

An ugly smile crept across the other boy's face. "Did _you_ ever stop when she asked you to?"

Ronnie scowled. He was very sorely tempted to erase that smirk with his fist, but one never hit a guy wearing glasses.

Not in the face, anyway.

_"Oof!"_

The Titans cheered when their quarterback buried a punch in Michael's stomach and swung the smaller boy around, shoving him into the bank of lockers across the hall.

Michael landed on his feet, fists at the ready, and the two boys circled each other warily. "Sock it to him, Sunshine!" Gerry cried.

"Kick his ass!" Alan chimed in.

_"No!"_ a female voice rang out before he and Michael could lunge at each other. Tamsin pushed her way through the crowd that had gathered. "Stop that right now!"

Ronnie glanced at his opponent, making sure that he wasn't preparing to launch any cheap shots, before turning to her and replying. "But he insulted you!" 

"I don't care," she told him, even as an embarrassed flush stole over her cheeks. Tamsin glared at Michael, who didn't have the decency to look repentant in her presence. "And neither should you. His lies aren't worth listening to."

"So nothing happened between the two of you?"

Tamsin's blush deepened at the titters from their audience. Nevertheless, she drew herself up and looked him square in the eye. "Although this is absolutely none of anyone's business, least of all yours," she told him crisply, "_no_, nothing happened between us."

"Thank you for that bit of information," a familiar authoritative voice said, and the crowd parted to let Coach Boone enter the scene. "Just what is going on here?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Michael replied, even as he rubbed the small of his back.

"Nothin', huh? That was what that crowd was watchin' — nothin'?" The older man arched an eyebrow at the students who were quickly starting to make themselves scarce. Soon, only Tamsin and the Titans remained with Boone and the combatants.

"Well, nothing's happening _right now_," the dark-haired boy pointed out. "I didn't say nothing happened _a while ago_, before you showed up."

Ronnie exchanged glances with his teammates and bit his tongue to keep from snickering. None of the Titans would ever dream of talking back to Boone the way Michael was right now, and they were frankly looking forward to the dressing-down he was going to get.

They were not disappointed. 

The coach's face tightened. He rubbed his forehead with his hand and then showed his palm to Michael. "Boy, what does this look like — stupid rubbin' off of me?" he said. "We both know what I meant. Now did anything happen here just now, a while ago or even _a year_ ago, involving yourself, Ronnie Bass over here and anyone else who has yet to be identified?"

Michael thrust his chin out stubbornly. "No, sir."

"Nothin' really happened, huh? So you really come to school lookin' like you got dragged through a bush backwards?"

"Yeah, he always looks like that, Coach," Petey laughed.

His friends shushed him but Boone paid the black boy no mind, keeping his attention on Michael. "Get out of here, boy," he ordered, "and tidy yourself up — you're a disgrace." He then spun around to face Ronnie as Michael wordlessly left the hall. "You got anythin' to say for yourself, Sunshine?"

"He insulted Tamsin, Coach," the blond boy replied. 

The older man looked to Tamsin for confirmation, but she folded her arms and said nothing. Instead, the other Titans were the ones who backed Ronnie up. "He did, Coach," said Gerry, and Rev nodded in support. "We were right here the whole time and we heard everything."

"And he was lyin' about Tamsin, too," Blue (yes, _Blue!) piped up. "You heard her say that they didn't, uh…" He broke off, embarrassed. "Well, you know what she said."_

Boone glanced at Tamsin again, but still addressed the boys. "Well, she looks like she's perfectly capable of takin' care of herself," he remarked. "Especially against a kid like that. Didn't you stop to consider that he was only about half your size, Sunshine?"

"I did, sir," Ronnie said. "That was why I didn't hit him in the face."

The coach's mouth quirked in a brief smile. "Nevertheless, it ain't right pickin' on someone smaller than you. Keep that in mind the next time you want to play the knight in shinin' armor."

A warm flush spread over his face at the teasing hoots from his friends. "Yes, sir."

"You're lucky football season's over, Sunshine, or I would have had to bench you."

"Yes, sir," Ronnie said again. Boone gave him and the other Titans a brief nod before walking off. When the coach was gone, Ronnie looked around for Tamsin, hoping to speak to her, but found that she was already halfway down the hall, running away from him.

* * *

News about the fracas at lunch spread quickly through the school, and all afternoon Ronnie was the object of many stares and whispered conversations. By the time last period rolled around, he was thoroughly sick of it. "Everyone's acting like I'm going to turn into the Incredible Hulk at any second," he muttered to his friends on their way to English.

"I can't believe people are still talkin' about it," Petey chuckled. "I thought the whole school was there, watchin' Sunshine break his foot off on Mikey's scrawny behind."

"Well, obviously only _almost_ the whole school was there," Gerry replied as he wheeled into Mr. Graham's classroom. 

"Ha-ha, very funny," Ronnie said sarcastically. 

His voice seemed unnaturally loud in the silence that greeted the Titans' entrance. He felt himself start to turn red when he realized that everyone was looking at them.

"Hello, boys," Mr. Graham greeted them, breaking the excruciating pause. Although he most probably had already heard about the lunchtime incident, his smile and tone of voice indicated that everything was going to be business as usual as far as he was concerned. "Come in and take your seats; we'll be starting class soon."

"Yes, sir." Ronnie resolutely ignored the curious looks and whispering coming from all sides as he followed his friends to the back row. Ray Budds smirked at him as he sat down, but Ronnie ignored him, too. 

The whispering died down after the Titans took their seats without incident, only to revive again when Tamsin appeared.

Walking into a room full of gawkers was daunting, but she willed herself to ignore them and hold her head up high. Once she made it to her seat, she opened her English book and pretended to read, silently giving thanks that she was sitting in the front row, where she could at least turn her back on everyone.

Tamsin could not, however, turn her back on her father. The look on his face clearly told her that he had heard about what had happened at lunchtime and she knew that they were going to discuss it that night.

Michael slouched into the classroom just as the last bell was ringing. "Michael, so nice of you to join us," Tamsin's father greeted him. "Sit down so we can start." He watched the dark-haired boy take the front-row seat farthest from Tamsin, and then gave the rest of the class (who had also been watching Michael) a wry look. "All right, everyone, show's over. Take out a sheet of paper, we're having a surprise quiz."

Tamsin made a small face as she did as was instructed amid the inevitable chorus of groans. If her father meant to punish Michael in some way for what happened last Saturday night, she thought, he was going at it the wrong way.

Fortunately, it was an objective quiz and she remembered enough of the assigned reading to answer the questions. Tamsin then spent the rest of the period willing for the class to end so that she could go home. She had just enough left in her to walk through the halls one last time. Just enough to weather one last storm of pitying stares, whispered conversations and snickers behind her back. She did not want anyone to get in the way of her getting out of there and just going home. 

But a couple of people did, and they just happened to be the _last_ people she wanted to see. 

The first one showed up just as she was about to close her locker door. "Hey… Tamsin."

Her heart seized up at the sound of his voice, but she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing herself to stay calm. _Be strong. Don't fall apart. "Michael," she replied, turning to look at him. _

He stood there silently for a while, speaking only just as Tamsin was turning back toward her locker. "I just wanted to say that…you know…I'm sorry," he told her.

The last few words had sounded like they were squeezed out of him, as if he weren't used to saying them. A part of her was pathetically glad that he was apologizing to her, but another part couldn't help noticing that he didn't sound like he meant it. "OK," she said after a few moments' pause.

"Does that 'OK' mean you forgive me?"

She turned from him toward her still-open locker. "No, it means that since you've said what you wanted to say, you can go away now."

But Michael would not leave. "You do know what I'm apologizing about, don't you?"

Tamsin scowled. When had he begun to sound so patronizing? "Yes," she snapped. "You don't have to refresh my memory. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't."

"Look, I know that what I did that night was really stupid and insensitive—"

"Don't forget sick and dehumanizing."

"And sick and dehumanizing," he repeated dutifully, "but I was hoping that despite that, you could give me another chance."

An incredulous laugh burst out of Tamsin. Michael had almost raped her that night, and he thought a half-assed apology like that was enough to make her want to pick up where they left off? She could almost hear her mother's indignant Arthurian-style howling in her head. _The gall of that cur! Off with his head! "No," she told him._

His gray eyes widened. "No?"

_"No."_

"But—"

"What part of 'no' didn't you understand, Mikey?" another male voice broke in, and the second person Tamsin did not want to see appeared at her side.

Michael looked at her and then at Ronnie, standing together before him, and drew himself up to his full height. The gesture reminded Tamsin of a worm making its last stand against a particularly ravenous rooster. "Don't worry," the dark-haired boy replied, "I understand completely."

"Then get out of here."

Tamsin closed her eyes, again trying to pull herself together. When she opened them again, Michael had slunk away, but Ronnie was still there. "Hi, Ronnie," she said, finally closing her locker door.

"Hi," he replied, and held up her yearbook. "I've come to give this back to you."

"Thanks." She moved to take it, but instead he took the books she was already carrying and added them to the yearbook he still held.

"You're welcome," he told her. Ronnie leaned on her locker, making himself comfortable. He was clearly planning to stick around for a while. "So…how are you?"

"Just fine."

"No one gave you any trouble this afternoon?" He frowned slightly and cocked his head in the direction where Michael had gone. "Besides _him_, I mean?"

"No," she replied, folding her arms and looking down at them. "And speaking of this afternoon," she added, "you didn't have to do what you did."

"It was nothing," he told her with a modest half-smile.

Tamsin's cheeks flamed. _He was actually _proud_ of what he'd done?_ "No. I meant it. You didn't have to do what you did. You _shouldn't_ have done what you did." 

Ronnie blushed as well, and his smile faded. "I was only trying to help."

"I know that, but you didn't have to. I dealt with him myself that night. Now everyone knows about last Saturday." _Now everyone knows I was wrong about Michael._ "You could have asked me first."

By now, he was frowning. She was right, Ronnie averred, he should have asked her first; but given the way she had been shutting everyone out lately… "Would you have told me about it?"

Tamsin opened her mouth to reply that of she would have, but then shut it. Of course she wouldn't have. She wouldn't have told anyone, especially not _him_. "Will you just leave me alone?" she finally asked.

"I can't do that."

"Why not?" _Everyone else has._

His blush deepened. He couldn't out and out tell her why. _Besides, she should already know._ "I think you need someone to talk to."

Tears threatened again for the _n_th time that day and she was sorely tempted to lean against him and have a good cry, but she managed to keep a tenuous grip on herself. "It can't be you."

Something inside Ronnie died and he scowled. "Fine," he said, pushing himself up off her locker and tipping her books back into her arms. "Good luck finding someone else who cares."

Tamsin hugged her books to herself, feeling strangely bereft as she watched him stalk away. 

After Ronnie had gone, she chanced a peek at the message he had written in her yearbook. Her mouth curved in a bitter, ironic smile as she read his words.

_Dear Tamsin,_

_Thank you for making this a very memorable year. You are, without a doubt, the coolest girl in class. I'm not just saying that — you're smart and independent and you're sure to go far. I'm very proud to call you my friend._

_Best of luck with all that lies ahead. I hope you will always remember the good times you had here in Alexandria. Remember also that I am always here for you. _

_"You are like me; you are different from other people. You are Kamala and no one else…"_

_Take care of yourself and keep in touch._

_Love, Ronnie_

* * *

As if the conversation with Ronnie after school wasn't bad enough, Tamsin still had to face her father. What he would say to her?_ Probably "I told you so,"_ she thought dryly. Maybe he would ground her, too. That actually didn't sound so bad. 

She of course would have preferred that they not discuss the matter of Michael at all, but these days she seldom got what she wished for. 

"So…today was kind of rough, wasn't it?" her father began over dinner that evening.

She shrugged and shoved a spoonful of parsley rice into her mouth, chewing and swallowing without tasting a thing. Mealtimes had not been fun at the Graham household for a long time. "Mondays are always rough."

He sighed. "You know what I mean, Tam," he said, abandoning the nonchalant pose.

Yes, she knew what he meant. "Well, I got through today just fine, the way I got through last Saturday just fine."

"Did you really get through Saturday 'just fine'?"

Tamsin blushed and avoided her father's gaze. She had grown up confiding in this man, but there were certain things you couldn't discuss with someone else, especially a parent, without feeling awkward. "Yes," she said finally. "Nothinghappened."

"That doesn't mean you didn't get hurt."

"I'm fine," she insisted. "I hit him. We're through. I just want to get on with my life."

"Tamsin, I'm not happy that such a thing happened—that is, _almost happened_ to you," he told her gently. 

_At least he isn't gloating,_ she thought.

"Deny it if you will, but you _are_ my daughter," her father went on, "and even if you weren't, I promised your mother I'd take care of you. If I wasn't Michael's teacher, I would have gone after him with a horsewhip."

"Don't bother, someone already did."

"Ah, yes." He smiled. "Sunshine."

She hid her face in her glass as she took a sip of orange juice. "It's not funny." 

"I'm not laughing."

"He shouldn't have done what he did, especially not in front of all those people."

"His actions _were_ a bit impulsive," her father admitted, "but at the same time I thought they were very chivalrous."

Tamsin rolled her eyes. "The days of dueling to avenge a lady's honor are long past, Dad."

The look of surprised pleasure that crossed her father's face made her blush. _That_ had slipped out rather unexpectedly. "Well, despite the fact that he is…rather unconventional compared to most other boys here in Alexandria," he told her, still smiling, "I think Sunshine still has those old-fashioned values at heart."

She lowered her gaze and drew restless circles with her spoon in the rice on her plate. There was still quite a bit of it left. "I'm sure he'll be happy to know that once you tell him."

"Haven't you talked to him? I thought I saw you in the halls together after class."

_Did he see me talking to Michael, too?_ "I wasn't telling him he was chivalrous."

"What _did_ you tell him?"

"That he should have minded his own business."

Her father arched an eyebrow. "Apparently, he thinks you are still his business." 

Tamsin stared more fixedly at her plate. She wanted to talk about Ronnie even less than she wanted to talk about Michael. The discussion on Michael was cut-and-dried: he was a jerk and they were through, period. On the other hand, talking about Ronnie would involve issues like their friendship (or, judging from the conversation that afternoon, the lack thereof), why he seemed so worried about her and the things bothering her that made him worry about her…things which she did not want to think about. 

She was also certain that her father was going to compare Michael to Ronnie and ultimately conclude that the latter had been better for her and that she was stupid to have let him go. The "I told you so" was coming, and Tamsin didn't want to have to deal with that right now, either. 

"Excuse me," she said, abandoning her half-eaten dinner and rising. "I'm not hungry anymore."

* * *

_Oh, there's something on my mind_

_Won't somebody please_

_Please tell me what's wrong—_

The song ended abruptly when Ronnie reached over and turned off his radio. The music was unusually distracting that evening, and he was already preoccupied enough as it was. 

He stared at Siddartha and Kamala, swimming in their fishbowl. Ordinarily, the sight would have relaxed him, but tonight it made him scowl. The goldfish reminded him of Tamsin, and he had been trying to get her out of his head so he could get some schoolwork done. With the semester ending, last-minute assignments were piling up, and after all those were done, you had the final exams.

Deciding that music was the lesser evil, Ronnie turned the radio back on.

_You're just a fool, you know you're in love_

_You've got to face it to live in this world…_

But memories of his last conversation with Tamsin persisted. She had not been grateful that he had knocked ol' Mikey around a bit because of what the dark-haired boy had done to her. In fact, she had practically told Ronnie to stay out of her life. "I thought we were friends," he muttered, turning a page in his math book with an angry _swish_.

Why didn't she confide in him? It was painfully clear that something big, much bigger than Mikey's turning out to be a jerk, was on her mind; and it was also obvious that she wasn't talking to anyone, not even to Mr. Graham.

Ronnie frowned and shook his head to clear it. Why did he care? He should be thankful he didn't have her problems to worry about on top of all the schoolwork he had to do. He should leave Tamsin alone, which was what she so obviously wanted, instead of dogging her and feeling bad whenever she rejected him. He should just stop thinking about her, because he was as sick of thinking about her as Blue was of hearing him think about her.

But that's what you did when you really cared about someone.

And, whether anyone liked it or not, he really did care about Tamsin. "And not just as a friend," Ronnie muttered rebelliously. "I love her, dammit."

The admission made him feel a bit better. A part of him couldn't help but feel that it was pathetic, the way he remained stuck on a girl he'd known for barely a year, but the rest of him knew that he felt this way because she was special. 

_You take the good along with the bad_

_Sometimes you're happy and sometimes you're sad…_

Unlike all the other girls in town, Tamsin hadn't liked him just because he played football. In fact, she hadn't known a thing about the game until she moved to Alexandria, but she had tried to learn because of him. Ronnie liked to think that he had encouraged her to learn and experience new things, while she encouraged him to be more than just the cookie-cutter quarterback everyone else thought he was. Give and take, the way a relationship is supposed to be, and it had ended too soon.

Presently, there was a gentle knock on the door. "Ronnie?" his mother called from out in the hall. "Are you done studying yet? Dinner's ready."

He felt like he hadn't done any studying at all, but Ronnie needed a break. "Coming, Mom."

_You know you love him, but you can't understand_

_Why he treat ya like he do when he's such a good man…_

Once the finals were over, he and Tamsin were going to sit down and have a very serious talk.


	22. Love Me Like A Rock

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA and the original Titans to themselves. The title of this chapter belongs to Paul Simon, "Dear Prudence" to the Beatles and "Mrs. Robinson" to Simon & Garfunkel. The screenplay for The Graduate belongs to Calder Willingham and the original Mission: Impossible TV show was created by Bruce Geller. Oh, and I got the "no more teachers, no more books" chant from an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. I only own Tamsin, her parents, assorted TC Williams students and personnel, and Birchman College.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to KJFlygirl87, Nayeli, Penning Fantasy and all the repeat reviewers for the great feedback! We're sort of in the home stretch now — after this, I've got only one more chapter and an epilogue to go!

_Chapter Twenty — Love Me Like A Rock_

A celebration broke out in Mr. Denton's Social Studies class the minute the bell rang, signaling the end of the seniors' high school careers. Some jumped up and whooped exuberantly. Others threw pencils and stray sheets of paper up in the air. Petey Jones stood up on his chair and led the class in the old playground classic _"No more teachers, no more books…"_

Mr. Denton laughed as his students concluded the chant with a loud round of applause. "That's right, 'no more teachers, no more books,'" he agreed as he collected their final exams, "but only for the next couple of months. After that, y'all start college, and that's when the real hard stuff begins! I'm just kidding," he added when everyone groaned. "Don't worry about that just yet. All right, you're dismissed, but please leave in an orderly fashion so we don't disturb the other classes. Try not to make the juniors jealous!" he hollered over the noise as people took their leave. "See y'all at graduation!"

Tamsin and Emma stopped by to say goodbye to their teacher before joining the crowd of seniors eager to start their summer. "I can't believe it's all over!" the blonde girl exclaimed. "We're free!"

"Yeah, free," Tamsin repeated. She couldn't believe it, either. After months of going to school and pretending (badly, given how Ronnie had kept after her) that everything was OK, she was now free to hole up in her room until graduation. After that, she and her father would be moving back to New York, she would have all the answers she needed from her mother, and she wouldn't have to see anyone from Alexandria ever again.

They met Cat and Sharon by the ground floor drinking fountains. "It's all over!" Cat crowed, throwing her arms out in jubilation.

Sharon slumped luxuriantly against the wall. "I feel so good I'm not even going to worry about how I did on that Calculus final."

"Oh, please," chorused Emma and Cat, causing a laugh to bubble out of Tamsin. Sharon had the highest marks in the entire senior class and was a shoo-in for valedictorian. Big Julius had vowed that if she didn't graduate at the top of the class, he was going to picket the school board.

"You know you did well on that test and wrecked the curve for the rest of us," Cat accused playfully. 

"I did not!" the tall black girl retorted as her boyfriend showed up and slipped an arm around her waist. "Julius, tell them I didn't wreck the grading curve!"

Always ready to come to his girl's defense, Big Julius dutifully put on his game face and surveyed Sharon's tormentors. "She did not wreck the grading curve," he declared, and then broke into a grin. "Not more than usual, anyway."

Tamsin laughed again as Sharon slugged his shoulder. Laughing felt good, she thought. "I'm just kidding, baby," the big black boy was saying as he rubbed his shoulder where she'd hit it. "I know _y'all did well, OK? Hey, how about goin' for milkshakes at Ma Rose's?"_

"Are you buyin'?" Emma asked audaciously.

Big Julius chuckled. "If you're drinkin', I'd better see about splittin' the tab with Gerry," he cracked, earning him another slug on the shoulder. "Ouch! Hey, watch it, will you? I'm up for a couple of football scholarships, too, and I wanna make sure I deserve them!" He stopped rubbing his shoulders and eyed the girls around him. "So, are y'all game for Ma Rose's?" he asked. "The other guys will be there, too. We could hang out."

Tamsin shook her head as the other girls broke out the yeses. "I'm sorry…I can't." 

There was an awkward silence. "Why not?" Cat wanted to know. "Is there a problem? I thought you and Sunshine were still friends."

"It's not him," the dark-haired girl replied, avoiding Big Julius' eyes just in case Ronnie had told the Titans more than she had told anyone about the state of their friendship. "I–I'm just really tired, from all the strain of this week."

"Hanging out with us will be the perfect way to unwind," Emma cajoled.

Tamsin managed a feeble laugh. "No, thanks," she insisted. "I don't want to fall asleep on you guys. Besides," she added, "I need to call my mom. It's been a while since we last talked." She gestured vaguely with one hand. "So…I'm just going to go." 

Big Julius peered at her. "You all right, Tamsin?"

"I'm fine," she replied automatically. "Don't worry, I'm definitely not suicidal," she added with a small smile. "Just exhausted."

"Well, d'you need a ride anywhere?"

"No, I'll be OK on the bus. You guys go ahead and have fun."

"If you're sure you'll be OK," Emma said. "I'll call you tonight, all right? Just to make sure you got home and all."

"You don't have to do that," Tamsin demurred.

"Humor me."

Cat laughed. "All right, and I'll call you," she told Emma, "so I can find out if Tamsin's OK without her having to answer the same questions twice."

"And _I'll_ call _you_," Sharon told Cat.

"So you'd better be home, sittin' next to that phone, you hear?" Big Julius said to Tamsin.

The dark-haired girl tossed off a salute. "Yes, sir."

She managed to keep the smile on her face until just after Big Julius and the girls had taken their leave. Once they were gone, she slumped against the wall just like Sharon had earlier. _God, that was difficult. _

Her face and throat hurt from keeping her expression and tone of voice cheerful. At least she hadn't had to lie so much this time — although she didn't want to go with them to Ma Rose's precisely because Ronnie was going to be there, she also really was very tired. Forcing herself to focus on her schoolwork had been twice as hard this semester as it had been in the last.

_Well, at least you managed to keep it together until the end of the term,_ Tamsin congratulated herself. _It's all over now._

She dumped her books into her locker and slammed the door shut. She would clean it out some other time. Maybe she would even have a little bonfire like some of the other kids were planning, she thought as she slung the strap of her now-much-lighter book bag over her shoulder, ready to go home. 

Tamsin bumped into Sheryl Yoast just inside the front doors. "Hi, Sheryl," she said automatically. 

The little girl didn't say anything, just glared back. Apparently, Sheryl still hadn't forgiven her for breaking up with Ronnie, even if football season had ended long before their split.

Tamsin shrugged. She didn't care. "'Bye, Sheryl."

* * *

"You said you were gonna do this after finals were over," Ronnie muttered to himself. "Well, they're over, so now you're gonna do this."

His hands bunched into fists as he resolutely marched up Tamsin's front walk. He was preparing himself for their Very Serious Talk. Again.

This was his fifth time to go there that week. The first two times, he had left without even ringing the doorbell. The next two times, he had rung the doorbell, but Mr. Graham had told him both times that Tamsin didn't want to see him. At least it wasn't just him — Mr. Graham said that she didn't want to see anyone. Ronnie, however, knew that he topped the list of people she didn't want to see. Or he at least placed a close second to the King Scumbag, Michael Cardinal.

He walked across the porch and rang the doorbell. As usual, Mr. Graham answered. "Hi, Sunshine."

"Good afternoon, sir," Ronnie replied with a rather sheepish smile. "I guess you already know why I'm here."

"Yes, I do. Won't you come in?" 

They moved into the living room, where Ronnie sat down and waited for his teacher to tell Tamsin that she had a visitor. He gazed unseeingly at the newspaper on the coffee table, trying to imagine what the talk would be like. What would she say? How would he react? 

He had done the same thing with every football game he had ever played, outlining his strategy and trying to predict how his opponent would react. This talk, however, was bigger than any Big Game could ever be.

When Mr. Graham returned with a now-familiar apologetic look on his face, Ronnie knew that his imaginings were going to stay imaginary for at least another day. "I'm sorry, Sunshine," the older man told him. "I wish I had a different answer for you today, but I don't. Tam doesn't want to see you."

He nodded, glancing back down at the newspaper to hide his disappointment. "It was worth a shot."

"_Another_ shot, you mean."

"Yeah," Ronnie agreed somewhat wryly, "another shot." He was very briefly tempted to just go upstairs, barge into Tamsin's room and demand that she talk to him, but he didn't think Mr. Graham would like that. 

His former teacher's next words confirmed his thoughts. "I'm really sorry, Sunshine," he said again. "I think it would do her a lot of good to talk to someone, but I don't want to force her into it. Either she's not ready to talk, or she's waiting for the right person to talk to."

_It can't be you._ "That's OK," the blond boy replied. "I understand. I just wish the right person were me…or you," he added. "Or one of her other friends."

"So do I. Listen, why don't you stay a while for some iced tea? I'd hate for you to come all this way just to leave again." Mr. Graham had made the same offer twice before.

Ronnie had refused both times, and this time wasn't going to be any different. There was something uncomfortable about being in a house belonging to someone with whom you weren't exactly on speaking terms. "No, thank you. I'm really sorry I keep coming here and bothering you, sir."

"You're not bothering me in the least," the older man assured him. "School's out, I've submitted your final marks, and my book's almost done. What else is there for me to do except answer the door and try to coax a recalcitrant teenage girl out into the sunshine? Come by whenever you like. Have lunch or dinner here. Tamsin does come down for meals, you know — maybe you can try to talk to her then."

Ronnie chuckled at the thought of an ambush. "I might do just that if push comes to shove." He rose and pulled his car keys from his pocket, thinking that next time — _and there would be a next time_ — it would be more convenient to just hold on to them. "Well, I guess I'd better get going. Thanks for your time, sir. Will you…will you please tell her I said hi?"

"I will. Drive carefully, Sunshine."

Upstairs in her room, Tamsin heard the door close and, moments later, a car drive away. In a short while, her father was going to knock on her door and tell her that Ronnie had come by again, hoping to talk to her. _Dear Prudence,_ the Beatles sang on her radio, _won't you come out to play?_

"Why should I?" she murmured. "There's nothing out there for me."

She rolled over in bed and the small pile of acceptance envelopes caught her eye. _It was all over._ School was out and all the colleges had made their decisions. Final marks and graduation were nothing more than formalities, which was a relief. Tamsin was sure that, despite her best efforts, her grades had slipped during the latter part of the semester. 

It was all over. There was nothing left to do but to get a piece of paper telling her to get out of town.

And then it dawned on Tamsin: she didn't even have to stick around to get that diploma. She was actually…already…completely…free.

* * *

The seniors' final marks were released on Friday, June 1st. Ronnie met his friends at school that morning so that they could pick up their report cards together. 

Although the Titans all paid the proper attention to their schoolwork, thanks to their coaches' tendency to look at performance both on and off the field, they were nervous about their grades. "I hope all that work was worth it," Big Julius said as they waited in line at the principal's office.

"I hope my grades won't make me look like I slacked off last semester," Gerry chimed in. "I want to go out with a bang, y'all know what I mean?"

"I'm sure you did great, Gerry," Emma declared loyally.

Cat stepped out of the line, grades in hand, and then it was Ronnie's turn. He collected his report card from Mrs. Farber, the secretary, who smiled as she handed it to him. "Put your signature next to your name on this list, dear," she instructed, holding out a clipboard. "So I can keep track of who already got their report cards."

"Yes, ma'am." Ronnie found his name on the senior class list and put his signature next to it as instructed, then took a deep breath and finally looked at his marks.

He smiled when he found that he hadn't gotten any F's, D's or even C's that semester. Instead, he had gotten mostly B-pluses, a few A's, and a B in Physics. Once he was certain that his grades were quite good, he put his report card away and tried to guess from his friends' facial expressions how they had done.

It was funny watching the others look at their marks. While some, like him, looked the minute they received their marks, others believed in prolonging the torture, perhaps in the hopes that any bad grades would magically change before they laid eyes on them.

Petey squeezed his eyes shut the minute he received his report card and thrust it blindly at Blue. "How did I do?"

The big black boy arched an eyebrow at his friend. "Why don't you go see for yourself?"

"Naw, you do it. _Pleeease?_"

With a martyred sigh, Blue read Petey's marks to him. When he knew that he had passed every subject, Petey opened his eyes, gazed rapturously at his grades, and started to do a victory dance right in the middle of the office.

Ronnie exchanged amused glances with Big Julius. "How did you do?" the blond boy asked.

"Pretty good," the Titans' captain replied with a satisfied smile. "Not as good as Sharon did, of course," he added, smiling at his girlfriend, who also looked like she had done well, "but the teachers recognized all the effort I put in."

They watched Alan leave the line with his report card clutched to his chest. The wiry blond boy's eyes were shut, too, and he opened them slowly to look at his marks. Judging from the grin that spread across his face, they were pretty good, too. "All right! This'll get me off the waiting list at Birchman for sure!" He beamed at Rev. "Thanks for all your help, man."

Rev slapped him a low five. "Anytime, brother."

Just then, Mr. Graham entered the principal's office and made a beeline for the secretary's desk. "Hi, Mrs. Farber," he greeted the plump lady with a polite smile. "I'm here for Tamsin Lee's report card."

Mrs. Farber smiled back. "Of course, Mr. Graham. Let me just get it for you."

A brief silence descended upon the room as the secretary looked for Tamsin's report card. The Titans all looked at Ronnie. "Looks like she ain't comin' today, man," Petey whispered to him, and inclined his head toward the door. "Let's get out of here."

Mrs. Farber found Tamsin's report card before they could leave. "Here you are," she said, handing it and the clipboard to Mr. Graham.

They watched the teacher sign the class list. He took a peek at her grades, smiled his satisfaction, and then noticed that quite a few of his now-former students were in room. "Hey, everyone! Long time no see! Came to get your grades?"

"Yes, sir," Alan replied for everyone, and held up his report card. "Thanks for the A-minus, Mr. Graham. It really helped pull up my average."

"No need to thank me, Alan," the older man told him. "You did all the work — I just graded you. And call me Jon!" he reminded everyone. "I'm not your teacher anymore! So, where're you guys headed?"

Gerry shrugged. "Out," he said. "We'll probably go hang out somewhere."

"It feels great, having a whole day of doing what you want ahead of you, doesn't it?" Mr. Graham regarded them all fondly. "Well, you go have fun. I'm going to see you all at graduation, right?" He beamed when the Titans all nodded. "Good. I want to watch you march!"

"'Bye, Mr. Graham," they chorused.

"'Bye," he replied. "Oh, and Sharon — congratulations on making valedictorian."

Sharon gasped. Ronnie didn't think it was possible for a black girl to turn so pale. "Thank–thank you, sir," she managed to say. "Um, where did you find that out?"

"Well, the teachers do have a part in selecting the valedictorian, you know," Mr. Graham told her, looking amused. "And there's a notice on the bulletin board right outside the office."

The Titans found the notice after a mad dash into the hallway. "What's it say?" Petey asked, hopping up and down in an attempt to get a better look over Big Julius's shoulder. "I can't see!"

_"Ow!"_ Cat yelped, shoving the black boy away. "You landed on my foot!"

Big Julius whooped and pointed at a line in the announcement. "There it is! _'Valedictorian — Sharon Denise T. Williams'_!" He caught Sharon up in an ecstatic hug. _"You did it, baby!"_

Besides announcing the valedictorian for the Class of 1973, the notice also contained the names of the winners of the other year-end awards. Besides being valedictorian, Sharon had also won the Achievements in Science Award. Cat had won the Achievements in Drama Award, just as Ronnie had predicted, and Gerry Achievements in Athletics. 

"I say this calls for a celebration!" Petey declared just as Ronnie saw that Tamsin had won the Achievements in English Award.

"Winners' treat!" Emma chimed in.

Sharon made a face at the blonde girl. For a while, it looked like she was going to argue, but she finally said, "All right, fine, but just one round, OK?"

"Quick!" Alan urged. "Let's go before she changes her mind!"

Laughing, the Titans made their way to the parking lot. It was the summer before college, and they were on top of the world.

* * *

When Ronnie did finally get the opportunity to talk to Tamsin, it wasn't at her house, where she continued to refuse to see him. It also wasn't at school, when their graduation caps and gowns were released on the morning of June 5th. 

He bumped into her, completely by chance, at the supermarket on the afternoon of the 5th. His mother had noticed him loafing around the house and sent him to run some errands for her. 

They ran into each other (but only figuratively speaking) in the dairy section. He managed a small smile when he saw her. "Hi."

She looked at him warily. "Hi."

"How have you been?"

"Good."

_Sure you've been good._ Ronnie glanced at her shopping cart: celery, a couple of tomatoes, butter, several cans of tuna and a dozen eggs. Nothing unusual. "I didn't see you at school today," he said. "They handed out our caps and gowns."

"My—uncle got mine for me."

"He got your report card, too. I was in the office when he got it. How did you do?"

"Fine. Better than I expected, actually," she added, sounding a bit relieved.

"Good."

"Yeah."

"Are you going to be at the graduation rehearsal tomorrow?" he asked her then, hoping that she would be there. Mr. Graham could pick up her grades and stuff for her, but he couldn't take her place in rehearsals, too, could he?

Tamsin folded her arms and rested them across the handle of her shopping cart. "I'm not marching."

Ronnie blinked. "Didn't you just say your grades were fine?"

"Yes. I'm just not marching. I'm not even planning to show up."

"You're boycotting graduation?" He managed another small smile and a feeble chuckle, hoping that she was kidding. "But, Tamsin, the war is over. Nixon's gone. We're old enough to vote. There's no need for you to make a political statement."

She didn't laugh. "I'm not doing this to make any kind of statement. I just don't want to march. I don't have to."

"What about your Achievements in English award?"

"Uncle Jon can just get that for me, too," Tamsin said with a dispassionate shrug. "Listen, it's been nice talking to you, but I have to go." She nodded at the things in her shopping cart. "We need this stuff for dinner tonight."

"Need a ride anywhere?"

"No, thanks; I've got the car."

"OK, then. I'll call you." It was a statement, not a request. _That's it, nice and assertive. Good job, Bass,_ he congratulated himself.

But she didn't even blink. "Whatever. Goodbye, Ronnie."

* * *

"_Mission: Impossible_ not yet accomplished, Sunshine?" Blue teased when Ronnie joined him and the other Titans in the Bertiers' back porch that evening.

"Nope, not yet," the blond boy replied, taking a seat next to Petey at the picnic table they were all sharing. "Hey, everyone. Sorry I'm late."

"That's OK," Rev assured him. "You're not too late for the pizzas because they haven't arrived yet."

"But you _did_ miss your chance to ask for black olives," Gerry added. "So you're going to have to do without them tonight."

Ronnie smiled good-naturedly. "Ah, the price of tardiness. At least you're not making me do pushups." 

"So what was Tamsin's excuse this time?" Petey asked, steering the conversation back to what the Titans had dubbed "Mission: Impossible." 

"Hey, Tamsin never makes excuses," Ronnie told his friend as he helped himself to some potato chips from the bowl on the table. "She always says she just doesn't want to see me. And anyway, I didn't go to her house today. We bumped into each other at the supermarket."

_"And?"_ Alan asked keenly.

"And we talked a little. Stupid things, you know — she's OK, her grades were OK. I told her I would call her."

"And what did she say?"

"She said _'Whatever.'_"

Tamsin's reply made the Titans laugh uproariously. "Aw, man!" chortled Petey. "Five bucks says she ain't waitin' by the phone right now!" No one, of course, was willing to bet against him.

"So you gonna call her tonight?" Big Julius asked Ronnie when the others had calmed down.

The blond boy shrugged. "Yeah, I'm thinking about it."

"And is she gonna talk to you this time?" Blue chimed in.

"I hope so. I let Tamsin know ahead of time that I'm going to call, so she should be preparing herself to talk to me…if not, do you think Mr. Graham would make her come to the phone if I asked him nicely?"

Gerry shook his head. "Sunshine, Sunshine, Sunshine," he sighed. "I know this is the seventies and you're a liberated kind of guy, but at times like these you gotta to be firm."

"Like you're firm with Emma?" Alan cracked.  

Ronnie smiled slightly, but chose not to push it after seeing the belligerent expression on Gerry's face. "What do you mean by 'firm'?" he asked, trying to distract Gerry from the other Titans' laughter. "Are you saying I should club Tamsin over the head when she's not looking and drag her into my cave?"

"If you have to," the other boy replied seriously.

"I was being sarcastic."

"Look, man, I'm just sayin' you gotta do what you gotta do if talkin' to her is that important to you. If you have to do somethin' extra to show her you mean business, do it."

"And do it soon," Petey piped up. "Graduation's this Saturday. The next thing you know, she's gone and you never got the chance to tell her what's what."

_Goodbye, Ronnie._

Ronnie sat up with a start. His heart began to pound. Tamsin had told him that afternoon that she wasn't going to graduation. It was like it wasn't important to her anymore…like nothing was important to her anymore. _And she had said goodbye._ "Oh, my God." He stood abruptly. "I have to talk to her."

"Well, everyone in town knows _that," Alan said with a roll of his eyes._

"No, you don't understand. I need to do it right now. This could be my last chance."

The Titans exchanged glances. "I wasn't tellin' you to go away, Sunshine," Gerry chuckled. "But like I said, do what you have to do."

"And I have to do this," Ronnie said. 

"You better tell us all about it at Sharon's party tomorrow!" Petey ordered.

The blond boy grinned as he made to leave. "I hope I'll have something to tell you."

"Hey, Sunshine?" Blue said then.

"What?" Ronnie asked.

The big black boy reached out a hand for a low five. "Go get her, tiger."

Ronnie smiled, slapped the offered hand, and raced to his car with the Titans' rendition of the _Mission: Impossible theme song floating teasingly after him. He thought he heard girlish giggles coming from the second floor of the house, which meant that Gerry's nosy younger sister had probably been eavesdropping. Whatever. This was no time to worry about that._

He jumped into the Charger and raced to the house on Gartner Street at a speed that hovered just this side of legal. Upon his arrival, he jumped out of the car again without bothering to lock the doors. (He did remember to take the keys with him, though.) Ronnie bounded up the front walk, took the porch steps two at a time, and leaned on the doorbell.

Mr. Graham yanked the door open in moments. "Sunshine!" he exclaimed. "Thank God it's you!" 

The look on the older man's face set Ronnie's heart racing once again. Instead of his usual welcoming smile, he looked frantic. "What's wrong, Mr. Graham?" the blond boy asked. "Did something happen to Tamsin?"

"No" was the reply. "At least, I hope not." 

"What are you talking about?"

Mr. Graham held up a rather crumpled sheet of paper. "Tamsin's run away."

_"Run away?"_ Relief that she hadn't done something stupid like kill herself was quickly replaced by anger. "Well, why are you still here? Why haven't you gone after her?"

His tone of voice definitely wasn't polite, but the older man didn't notice. "I can't leave the house," Mr. Graham replied, wringing his hands (and Tamsin's note). "Before I found out Tamsin was gone, I got a phone call from her mother. Diana's on her way from the airport and I have to be here when she arrives!"

There was no need to say more. Ronnie was off and running toward his car even before the older man had finished speaking.

* * *

_Please let me find her. Please let me find her._

For the second time that night, Ronnie was on the road and dangerously close to speeding. It was the easiest thing in the world to step a bit more heavily on the gas pedal and throw caution and the law to the wind, but he didn't want to risk being delayed by a speeding ticket or worse, an accident. 

_Please let me find her. Please let me find her._

The car radio started playing Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" and he switched it off irritably. He needed to think, and not about the similarities between him and _The Graduate banging on the plate glass window._

If Tamsin were running away, she was most probably trying to get back to New York. And the fastest way out of town was to hitchhike or take the bus. Figuring that it would take longer for her to leave town if she were hitchhiking — he prayed silently that he would find her before some kook picked her up — Ronnie decided to try the bus depot first.

_Please let me find her. Please let me find her._

He scanned the waiting area the minute Alexandria's small bus depot came into view. To his intense relief, a familiar figure was sitting forlornly on the very front bench. "Thank God," he breathed, making a sharp right turn and entering the driveway.

The car careened to a stop right in front of her and Ronnie opened the passenger-side door. "Tamsin!" he called to her. "Thank God you're still here! Get in!" 

"What are you doing here, Ronnie?" she asked, peering into the car at him.

"I've got to get you home — to your house, I mean. Mr. Graham's going bananas."

She frowned. "If he's so worried, why didn't he come get me himself? Some father he is." 

The remark surprised him, but the public address system crackled to life before he could ask for an explanation. 

_"PLEASE MOVE YOUR VEHICLE OUT OF THE BOARDING AREA,"_ the disembodied male voice instructed.

_"JUST A MINUTE!"_ Ronnie yelled back. "Come on, Tamsin," he said to her, "please come back with me. Mr. Graham couldn't come get you because your mom's on her way to your house from the airport."

If he thought the mention of her mother was going to budge her, he had another think coming. Her eyes widened at the news, but she stayed where she was. "I can't leave," she replied. "I've already bought my ticket."

_"I REPEAT, PLEASE MOVE YOUR VEHICLE OUT OF THE BOARDING AREA,"_ the PA system blared.

"I'll pay you back the money you spent on it," Ronnie told her.

Tamsin folded her arms. "I'm not taking anything from you."

"Well, tonight you are. Get in."

"No."

_"FOR THE THIRD TIME, PLEASE MOVE YOUR VEHICLE OUT OF THE BOARDING AREA."_

"Tamsin, I can't stay here." He gestured toward the small building that housed the bus depot office. "They're making me leave."

She shrugged. "So go."

"I'm not leaving without you!"

"Tonight you are," she retorted.

_Why, you stubborn little…_Ronnie's blood began to boil. Tamsin had been quite determinedly painting herself into a corner for the past few months and he was sick of it. He was going to yank her out of that corner if it was the last thing he did. Mr. Graham and Tamsin's mom — Tamsin's _parents — were counting on him._

He wrenched his door open as the PA system issued a fourth warning, jumped out of the car and strode furiously toward where Tamsin sat. _"I have had it with you!"_ he shouted at her.

She jumped to her feet at his outburst, but it didn't seem to scare her. In fact, she got angry, too. "And I've had it with _you!" she replied, her frown deepening. "Stay out of my life!"_

Ronnie grabbed the backpack next to her and threw it into the Charger's back seat. "Sorry, babe, but you've got me whether you like it or not. Get in the car!"

_"No!"_

"I'm not letting you go this time, Tamsin! I shouldn't have let you go before, even though I understood why you wanted to break up with me. But _this_ time, you're being just plain stupid! Now get in the car so I can take you home and you can get the help you've been needing for a very long time!"

A bus drove by, honking its horn loudly. _"You crazy kids!" the driver yelled._

Even though he was teetering on the very limits of his patience, Ronnie resisted the urge to give Tamsin a good shake and settled instead for giving her his meanest gridiron glare. "Get in or else I'm carrying you all the way back to your house!" 

Her jaw dropped in surprise. "You're a brute, Ronnie Bass!" she sputtered.

On an ordinary day, that would have been insulting to a guy who prided himself on being mannerly and even-tempered, but this was not an ordinary day. Instead of taking offense at her remark, he pointed to the car and roared, _"NOW!"_ It was hardly the behavior of a gentleman but Ronnie didn't care. It felt good to yell.

Yelling obviously also got you somewhere, too, he thought later, as he finally drove out of the bus depot with Tamsin strapped sulkily into the passenger seat. "Have you eaten?" he asked, breaking the tense silence.

She shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

Ronnie sighed and rolled his eyes. "Tamsin, this is not the time to be stubborn—"

"I ate before I left, all right?" she snapped. "And I put a couple of sandwiches in my backpack. You can have one if you're hungry," Tamsin added after a brief pause.

He smiled briefly. "No, thanks," he replied. He wanted to make a joke about her possibly poisoning him but thought the better of it.

Silence descended again and did not let up for the rest of the drive to Tamsin's house. 

The street was as quiet as when Ronnie had left it. "I don't think your mom's here yet," he remarked.

Tamsin said nothing. She got out of the car and stood quietly by as he got her things from the back seat. When Ronnie had her backpack slung over one shoulder, she started up her front walk.

They heard voices coming from the living room when they entered the house. Ronnie found Mr. Graham seated on the couch with a frail-looking woman beside him. She was dressed all in black, save for a brightly-colored bandanna tied around her head.

The woman looked up when Ronnie and Tamsin stepped into the living room. Her Asiatic features marked her as Tamsin's mother. There was something strange about her appearance, however, and then Ronnie realized what it was — she didn't have any eyebrows. While the bandanna hid all her hair from view, it covered only part of her forehead.

"M–Mama?"

It took Ronnie a while to realize that the small, broken voice was Tamsin's. He turned toward her in time to see her face crumple. The woman held out her arms and Tamsin ran into them, crying. "Oh, M-Mama! I was so worried!"

Tamsin's mother leaned her cheek on her daughter's hair. "It's all right, sweetie," she soothed the crying girl. Her voice was rich and pleasantly husky. "We're all together now."

She continued to hold Tamsin while she cried. Ronnie had seen her cry only once before, the first time he had taken her up to the Hill, but that was nothing compared to this. This time she cried her heart out, all the while trying to talk to her mother in between great, gasping sobs. 

Ronnie took the sobbing as his cue to make himself scarce. It hurt to see Tamsin fall apart so completely. She probably wouldn't want him to see her in such a state, either.

He set the knapsack he had been carrying down in one corner, caught Mr. Graham's eye and waved a silent goodbye. The older man nodded his understanding, a look of intense gratitude in his eyes.

Ronnie didn't wait for Mr. Graham to walk him to the door. After giving one final nod in reply, he quickly left the house, the sound of Tamsin's sobs ringing in his ears.

* * *

The next morning dawned sunny and mild, like the calm following a storm. All over Alexandria, families and businesses were slowly awakening, preparing for a new day. Most of the seniors at TC Williams, however, were still asleep. Many had come in late from Miranda Fleming's year-end party the night before. The rest were simply taking advantage of the fact that they were already officially on vacation and could thus sleep in on a weekday.

All of them were still sleeping peacefully that quiet morning, except one.

As he did his _tai chi_ in the Basses' back yard, Ronnie tried to embrace the peace, to let his movements reflect the serenity of his surroundings, but he could still hear Tamsin crying.

_Breathe in, breathe out,_ he ordered himself._ Breathe in, breathe out. Don't think about her. _He stepped back, Repulsed the Monkey, and then went into a Flying Oblique. He raised his hands, and the White Crane Spread Its Wings. 

On an ordinary day, the routine was comforting, cleansing, but this morning, it was as negligible as brushing your teeth or doing your homework. Instead of focusing on his _tai chi, Ronnie simply went through the motions, his mind still buzzing over the previous night's events._

He had yelled at her. He'd never done that before, not even when they had disagreed. _But she deserved it,_ he thought. _She had it coming for a long time. _

_Still, maybe I ought to apologize. That is, if she'll talk to me._

"Where in the world are you going this early in the morning, Ronnie?"

"Nowhere special, Mom. Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Moments later, Ronnie was standing on the porch of 125 Gartner Street. "Why do I keep doing this to myself?" he wondered aloud. 

_You know why._

"It still doesn't make it any less pathetic," he muttered wryly, jabbing at the doorbell.

It took a while before someone answered the door. Ronnie had in fact already turned to leave when he heard it open and a female voice ask, "Yes?"

He spun around to see Tamsin's mother standing in the doorway. She wasn't wearing makeup and looked very tired. "Uh…good morning, ma'am," he managed to say.

She smiled, obviously having recognized him from the night before. "Good morning."

"I'm Ronnie Bass," he blurted out, for lack of anything better to say.

"I guessed that last night." Tamsin's mother chuckled and held out her hand. "Hello, Ronnie, I'm Diana Lee. I'm very pleased to finally meet you."

Her hand felt very frail in his, and Ronnie shook it as gently as he could. "Same here, ma'am. Tamsin talked about you a lot. She really missed you."

"I really missed her, too."

He nodded, glancing down at his feet. "Uh, speaking of Tamsin," he ventured, "how is she?"

"She's fine," Ms. Lee assured him. "She's still asleep — we were all up until late last night."

"Oh." He blushed, embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get you out of bed," he stammered. "I just wanted to know if she was OK."

"It's perfectly all right. I understand and appreciate your concern."

"So…I guess she won't be at the graduation rehearsal today?"

Tamsin's mother shook her head. She was wearing a different bandanna this morning. "No, but she will be at graduation," she said. "We'll all be there."

"Great. Did you—did you know that she won the Achievements in English Award?" he asked then.

"Yes," she replied with a smile. "Jon told me all about it."

"Of course he did." Ronnie shoved his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat, having absolutely nothing more to say. "Well, uh, since I know that Tamsin's OK, I guess I'd better go and let you get back to sleep."

"I'll tell Tamsin you came by."

"Thanks. I guess I'll, uh, just talk to her another time. See you around, Ms. Lee." He gave her a polite nod, which she returned, and turned to go.

"Ronnie?" Tamsin's mother called, just as he was about to start down the front walk.

He turned. "Yes, ma'am?"

"She's very lucky to have a friend like you."

Ronnie smiled. "Thank you."


	23. I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More, B...

**Disclaimer:** TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans, Juilliard and the Boy Scouts of America belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film _Remember the Titans_ belong to Disney. The title of this chapter comes from the 1973 song by the late Barry White. Sir Edward Elgar composed "Pomp and Circumstance," which is now played in graduation ceremonies all over the world, and as far as I know, "Hey Hey Goodbye" was first performed by the Dave Clark Five. Barbie belongs to Mattel, Nikon to the Nikon Corporation and _Monday Night Football_ to ABC Sports. Only Tamsin, her family, and assorted TC Williams students are mine. 

**Technical Notes:** According to ncaa.org, Division III colleges do not offer "athletically related financial aid to any student," so I have some basis for what I wrote in this chapter. The graduation ceremony is based on personal experience and input from the ever-helpful people at the Sugar Quill.

**Author's Notes:** Thanks to Dagaz1, LDBeaNie05, Beth Smith (with apologies to the real Ron Bass; in this story he is stuck with a Dodge Charger!) and all the repeat reviewers for your great feedback and continued support! I am still amazed at the amount of interest in this story and I hope that I'm showing you guys my due appreciation by doing my best and delivering a quality product. 

(And Mialana, how did you know? :D)

_Chapter Twenty One — I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby_

Ronnie didn't see Tamsin again until June 9th, Graduation Day. He had wanted to call, but he figured she and her parents had a lot to talk about. At least, he consoled himself, she finally had people — the _right_ people — to talk to about everything that had been bothering her.

The Basses entered the TC Williams High School football field, where the commencement exercises were to be held. A stage facing the home bleachers had been set up on the 50-yard line. There were tiers of seats on it for the graduates, but no one was sitting yet because the senior class would be kicking off commencement exercises with a procession to their seats. Ronnie spotted several of his classmates, wearing red graduation gowns similar to his own, milling in the crowd.

He turned to his parents and saw that Col. Bass had been surveying the scene, too. "You made us proud every time you got on that field, son," Ronnie's father said, "but I think your mother and I will be proudest today, watching you get your high school diploma."

"Indeed." Mrs. Bass beamed, and then reached over to straighten her son's tie. "You look very handsome today, Ronnie. Petey," she said to the black boy who had just walked up to them, "would you please take some pictures of us?"

Petey grinned and took the camera she held out. "Sure thing, Mrs. B. Now, if you and the colonel will just stand on either side of your little boy here, and Sunshine, if you'll just put on that mortarboard…good!" he praised when Ronnie, grinning self-consciously, settled the tasseled graduation cap on his head. "Now everyone say _quarterback sneak_!"

The Basses smiled dutifully as Petey snapped away. Once Mrs. Bass was satisfied, she let Ronnie and Petey go off and join their friends while she and her husband went to find good seats.

The boys spied a cluster of Titans standing near where Gerry was sitting, having his picture taken with his family. "Hey, what are y'all doin' here?" Petey asked when they found some of the junior Titans standing in the group. "Tryin' to sneak out of high school early?"

"No," Jim Frederick replied. "We came to see y'all graduate, of course."

"To make sure you're all really leavin' and we can steal your spots on the team," Ryan added, grinning at the narrow-eyed looks he received in return.

Just then, Rev joined them. "Hey, fellas; what's up?"

"Hunter here was just talkin' about how much he was gonna miss us," Petey replied dryly. 

"Love your scarf," Ryan told Rev.

Rev made a face at him as the other boys laughed. "It's not a scarf," he explained, holding up one end of the blue sash draped over his shoulders like a priest's stole, "it's an honors sash. Everyone on the Honor Roll gets to wear one."

Big Julius turned from talking to Alan and Blue to interrupt their conversation. "You mean _almost everyone_ on the Honor Roll gets to wear one," he corrected Rev. "One of you gets to wear a different sash." And he nodded toward Sharon, who was standing several feet away with Emma, Cat and a few other girls. The class valedictorian was wearing a yellow sash, apparently to distinguish her from the rest of the honor students.

"Aw, stop it, Julius," Petey said with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "We _know_ Sharon's valedictorian already."

"You'd think it was you, the way you're always goin' on about it," Alan remarked.

"Well, I'm real proud of her," the big black boy replied defensively, "and I think it's great that a sister beat out all the white kids to graduate top of the class — no offense," he added quickly, nodding to his friends.

"None taken," Ronnie assured him. 

Suddenly, there was an excited squeal and a female voice hollered, _"Tamsin!"_

The boys turned in time to see Emma, Cat and Sharon descend upon the dark-haired girl, who was standing on the sidelines with her parents. She was wearing her graduation gown, a sure sign that she was going to march that day. "Well, well, look who's here," Gerry remarked as he wheeled up to the other Titans.

"Her mom said they were gonna be here," Ronnie said. "Tamsin said she wasn't planning to show up, but—"

"—you chased her down and dragged her home by her hair," Blue finished for him, his amused grin bright against his dark-skinned face. "We know."

The blond boy made a face at his smirking friends. "Shut up." Some of the people at the bus depot had recognized him and later spread the story of his shouting match with Tamsin all over town. He had received many curious stares over the past few days. 

"It's nothin' to be ashamed of, Sunshine," Gerry told him cheerfully. "In fact, I'm proud of you."

Ronnie stuck his tongue out at his former teammate. "Anyway, she wasn't planning to come today," he continued, "but her mom said they were going to be here."

Petey peered at Tamsin's mother, who was smiling and shaking Cat's hand. "That's Tamsin's momma?"

"Yeah, that's her." Unlike most of the other mothers, who were dressed up and made up so that they looked like Barbie's mother, Ms. Lee was wearing a tailored purple pantsuit. And instead of the usual summer hat, she wore another colorful scarf tied around her head.

"There _is_ sort of a resemblance," Alan said finally. "I would've seen it earlier if she weren't so skinny. Is she sick or something?"

"Looks like she was," Ronnie said, remembering how tired she looked when he saw her up close, "but she should be OK now or else she wouldn't be here, right?"

They watched Tamsin pose for pictures with her mother and Mr. Graham, and then with her friends. Cat and Emma were dragging her off — no doubt to do girly stuff in the bathroom — when Coach Yoast, with Sheryl and Nikki in tow, walked up to them holding a camera.

"Hey, boys!" the Titans' defensive coach greeted them with a fond smile. "How about a picture?"

"Yes, and one for the Sports page!" piped up a man with a professional-looking Nikon around his neck. He had been taking pictures of Gerry and his family earlier. "I can take the pictures for you, Coach Yoast, so you can join the boys, too."

"Why, thank you," Yoast told him, handing over his camera. "Boone!" he called as Sheryl, Nikki and the Titans crowded close and turned on the grins. "Come and join us!" 

* * *

"What happened to you, Tamsin?" Emma demanded the minute they found an empty room to crowd into. Judging from the desk, the heaps of assorted sports equipment and the diagram-covered blackboard on one wall, they had gone into Coach Boone's office. "We were so worried!"

"You mean you don't know already?" Tamsin replied dryly. All eyes had been on her the minute she stepped out of the car. It was apparent that the story of the bus depot incident had reached quite a few ears.

"Well, we've heard what people are saying…" Sharon began.

"What are they saying?" the dark-haired girl asked as Emma turned her around and began pinching her cheeks. "_Ouch!_ What are you doing?"

"You're awfully pale," Emma replied in a clinical manner. "I'd lend you some blush, but I'm not sure if it would match your skin tone."

"How does one _lend_ blush?" Cat asked, chuckling.

The blonde girl sent her a narrow-eyed look. "You know what I mean!" She reached for Tamsin's purse and began to rummage around in it. "Now, did you bring lipstick?"

"Anyway, Tamsin," Sharon continued briskly, "we heard you tried to run away, and that Sunshine chased you down and brought you home."

"No one mentioned that he clubbed me over the head and dragged me into his car by the hair?" Tamsin wanted to know.

"He did _that_?"

"No, but he yelled at me."

"_I_ heard you yelled at each other," Cat remarked.

"_He_ yelled at me more than I did at him," Tamsin told her. "I deserved it, though," she admitted as Emma pressed something into her hand. Glancing down, Tamsin saw it was the tube of Wine and Roses lipstick she had slipped into her purse before leaving the house. "I know I've been acting…well, _strange_."

"You had a lot on your mind," Sharon told her forgivingly. "Right?"

"Right."

"Can you talk about it now?" Emma asked. "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, but—"

"We just want to know if you're OK," Cat finished for the other girl.

"I'm fine," Tamsin assured her friends. She laughed. It was more of a small chuckle, actually, but a genuine one nonetheless. "Really. I'm completely over Michael now—"

"Really?" Cat asked eagerly. "So you won't get mad if we tell you that we _really_ didn't like that guy?"

"We really didn't," Sharon added. "It wasn't because he wasn't Sunshine. That _was_ part of it," she averred, "but we hated Michael more because of the fact that he was a real creep."

"Yeah, he was." Tamsin looked down at her shoes. "I found that out the hard way."

"We heard," Sharon said.

"The whole school heard," Tamsin told her, cheeks warming at the memory of just how everyone had found out. "Anyway, he wasn't the only reason why I was so messed up. I…had a few personal problems with my mom, too. We've talked already," she added, "and things are getting better. Slowly, but they're getting better."

"I'm glad," Cat remarked. "Your mom's really cool."

There was a round of smiles at that. Of course Cat, being an actress and Juilliard-bound besides, would recognize a kindred spirit in Tamsin's mom.

Tamsin turned the lipstick over in her hand. "I'm sorry I shut you out while all this was happening," she said thickly, unable to meet her friends' eyes. "I wanted to say something, but there was just so much going on that I didn't know where to begin…" She let her voice trail off and shrugged. Even now she had no idea how to put everything into words. 

"Look, I'm just sorry, all right?" she said. "For everything. I don't know if you can forgive me for acting like I couldn't trust you — I know I can trust you — but anyway…I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"Aw, Tamsin." Sharon reached over to put an arm around the other girl's shoulders. "There's no need to apologize. You were having a really tough time, and we're just glad you got through everything in one piece. Don't cry."

"Yeah, don't cry," Emma echoed, "or else _we'll_ start crying, too, and we'll all look awful at graduation."

"And _that_ we won't be able to forgive you for," Cat finished.

Tamsin had to laugh at that. "I'm OK. Thanks, _y'all_," she said, placing emphasis on the "y'all" for Cat's benefit, "for being so understanding."

"That's what friends are for," Emma told her. "Now put on your lipstick."

* * *

The Class of 1973 took the field to tumultuous applause and the stirring strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" blaring on the PA system. Led by Sharon Williams and Steven Marino, their valedictorian and salutatorian respectively, the students marched in an orderly double file toward their seats in the back of the stage. 

Ronnie's place was at one end of the front row, so he easily found his parents in the crowd. His father cut an impressive figure in his Air Force colonel's dress uniform, but he was behaving like every other dad present and enthusiastically taking pictures. His mother, on the other hand, was deep in conversation with the person on her other side. Ronnie couldn't quite see who she was talking to, but he managed to catch the occasional glimpse of a brightly colored bandanna over the shoulder of the guy blocking his view.

He was also seated near the stage steps, so he could smile furtively at his friends as they went onstage to take their places. Everyone smiled right back — some with polite or friendly smiles, the Titans with eager, happy grins. When Tamsin flushed and gave him a hesitant smile, Ronnie felt a rush of relief that she wasn't mad at him for yelling at her that night at the bus depot. He privately resolved to hunt her down — _again_ — after graduation and try — _again_ — to have a civil conversation with her. _Millionth time's the charm,_ he told himself.

Everyone remained standing even after the graduates found their seats, and there was a solemn hush as a troop of Boy Scouts took the field, the tallest one carrying the American flag. The boys marched onstage and held the flag high, standing without the slightest waver, as the assembly sang the National Anthem. It was only after the song had ended and the Boy Scouts planted the flag in its special holder that everyone was able to take their seats.

Mr. Hilliard gave a short speech welcoming everyone to the graduation ceremony, and then introduced the people who had won special awards. 

Ronnie watched as each winner came forward to accept his or her medal. Of course, there was much applause when Gerry wheeled to center stage to receive the Achievements in Athletics Award from his mother and Coach Boone. And to the amusement of everyone present, Cat dipped a theatrical curtsy when she accepted her award for Achievements in Drama, as if to show that she was truly deserving of the honor.

For Ronnie, though, the best award had to be Achievements in English. Mr. Graham escorted Tamsin's mother onstage to give Tamsin her medal. As he watched Ms. Lee hang the medal around her daughter's neck, it occurred to Ronnie that he was one of the very few people present who knew that Tamsin was actually receiving her award from both her parents. The thought of being in on such a special secret made him smile.

After the special awards came the service awards from the different clubs and teams. Ryan, Jim and the rest of the undergraduate Titans whistled and hollered loudly as their graduating teammates came forward to receive their certificates from Coaches Boone and Yoast. "Somethin' tells me they ain't gonna miss us much," Petey muttered dryly as he took his place in line.

"Sure they will, Petey," Rev assured him with a chuckle. "They wouldn't be here if they didn't care enough to say goodbye."

Gerry and Big Julius, who had both served as team captain, went first. Ronnie went next. "Big day for you today, Sunshine," Boone remarked as the blond boy approached his coaches.

"Sure is, sir," he replied with a smile.

The normally stern black coach smiled back as he handed over Ronnie's certificate and shook his hand. "Congratulations, son. Maybe we'll see you on _Monday Night Football_ a few years from now."

"Yeah, it's possible, Coach," he answered, "but anything can happen in four years, you know? I'm also going to make sure I'm prepared for whatever comes my way."

"That's a smart attitude to have," Yoast remarked as he shook Ronnie's hand. "Congratulations, Sunshine."

After the awards, the Mayor gave a speech, and then the graduates finally received their high school diplomas. Ronnie felt a great sense of accomplishment when he got his, but at the same time he couldn't help feeling kind of bad that his parents didn't get to go up onstage to give him some kind of award. He took comfort in the fact that he _did_ get a service award, and in the smiles on his parents' faces, which told him that they were proud of him just as he was.

Once the diplomas had been handed out and they had been assured that their children were safely out of high school, it seemed that the parents allowed themselves to tune out the last part of the graduation ceremony. The graduates, however, listened avidly to Sharon's valedictory address. They listened to her thank the community, on behalf of the graduates, for all their support. They listened to her speak of growing up in a time of great social change, and of working together to build a better world.

And they listened to her utter the final sentence that gave them their freedom: _"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Class of 1973!"_

There was a cacophony of music, cheering and applause as the graduates stood up and flung their caps in the air. Whooping loudly, Ronnie launched his cap as if it were a Hail Mary pass from behind the line of scrimmage and watched it disappear into the swarm already airborne. All around him, his now-former classmates were laughing, crying, hugging, shaking hands and pounding backs. "Congratulations," people told him, yelling in his ear to be heard over the noise.

He grinned and yelled back, gradually making his way toward where the Titans had gathered near Gerry. _"We did it!"_ Ronnie shouted at them.

_"We're free!"_ Petey yelled back, slapping every shoulder within reach. _"And I miss y'all already!"_

A beaming Mr. Hilliard allowed the graduates several minutes to congratulate each other before signaling that it was time to end the graduation ceremony. They were too caught up in the moment to argue; besides, they had the entire summer to say goodbye to each other.

As he followed the rest of the Class of 1973 offstage, Ronnie heard singing coming from the fringes of the crowd, where he knew the younger Titans were all sitting.

_Na na na na _

_Na na na na _

_Hey, hey, goodbye…_

* * *

"Thank you so much for inviting us, Mr. Graham," Mrs. Bass said, smiling at him. After the graduation ceremony, the Basses had gone to 125 Gartner Street to celebrate along with Tamsin and her family. They were now sitting in the living room, recovering from the light yet still sumptuous Provencal food that Tamsin's father had prepared. "It was a lovely lunch, and Bill and I are so glad we got the chance to get acquainted with Diana here."

"It's always a pleasure to have you over," he replied.

"And I'm glad I got to meet you, too," Tamsin's mother added graciously. "Tamsin always spoke very highly of Ronnie and his parents."

"Well, isn't that nice?" Mrs. Bass remarked, smiling at Tamsin.

She managed to smile back and dropped her gaze before her eyes met Ronnie's. _Of course you would speak highly of the Basses,_ she told herself as she tried to will the blush from her cheeks. _They've always been very good to you. So stop acting as if your mother had just blurted out a very embarrassing secret!_

Tamsin continued to stare into her lap as the conversation shifted to other topics. She only half-listened as the adults quizzed Ronnie about his college plans and occasionally nodded agreement when Col. Bass recommended must-see attractions that her mother had to see during her stay in Alexandria.

Her mother's calling her name brought Tamsin back to earth. "Tamsin, sweetie, I hate to say this in front of guests, but you're looking a bit peaked," her mother told her. "Why don't you go outside and get some fresh air? She hasn't been feeling very well lately," she confided to the Basses.

"The end of the school year is always hard on a young person," Ronnie's mother agreed with a sympathetic nod, "especially the end of high school."

Tamsin managed another smile. "It sure is, ma'am."

"Oh, and why don't you take Ronnie with you?" her mother suggested as Tamsin got to her feet. 

"What?" Ronnie started at the suggestion and he felt his face start to grow warm. _Stop blushing!_ he ordered himself. 

"I was just telling Tamsin that maybe you two would like to go outside and get some air," Tamsin's mom told him. "I'm sure you'd rather hang out with someone your own age than with old fogies like us."

"Oh." This was the moment he had been waiting for: the chance to talk to Tamsin alone. But now that fate had dropped it right into his lap, what was he doing? He was chickening out! "I'm OK," he told Tamsin's mom. "I don't mind staying here."

"No," Tamsin said, "it's OK. I won't mind if you join me."

She spoke softly, looking down at her shoes instead of at him. Ronnie could tell that she was nervous and probably didn't want to talk to him any more than before. He had to talk to her, though; he wanted to talk to her, but he had to give her the choice, just as she had given him a choice a long time ago. "You don't sound like you mean it," he joked in an attempt to break the tension.

It worked. The adults all laughed and even Tamsin smiled. "Well, I mean it," she said, looking up at him this time. "You can come along if you like."

"There's still some iced tea left in the refrigerator if you want some!" Mr. Graham — Ronnie was still getting used to the idea of him being Tamsin's dad — called after them. "Just help yourselves!"

They didn't get any iced tea, though. Instead, Ronnie and Tamsin walked right out onto the back porch. He watched her claim her usual corner of the porch swing, kick off her shoes and tuck her stockinged feet under her. 

Ronnie perched on the opposite end of the swing. "Nice day, isn't it?" he remarked into the silence.

Tamsin nodded and pulled a cushion onto her lap. "Yes, it's a very nice day."

Actually, "nice" wasn't the word. It was a beautiful summer day: quiet and bright but not too hot. The late-afternoon sunlight reflected dully off Tamsin's black leather pumps, lying abandoned on the floor. A gentle breeze wafted in from the backyard, ruffling their hair and clothing. The silence, however, was deafening.

"So," he said then, "it's all over." 

"High school is," Tamsin corrected him. 

"That's what I meant." Ronnie took a deep breath. His store of small talk was exhausted; it was now or never. "Look," he began, "I've been wanting to talk to you about…a lot of things…for a long time."

"I know."

He chuckled nervously. "Yeah, of course you know. Apparently, everybody in town knew. Anyway, I guess this is my chance, huh?"

Tamsin hugged her cushion to her chest and rested her chin on the top edge. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, now that I've finally gotten my chance, I don't know where to begin."

"Take your time."

Ronnie nudged the floor with his toe and set the swing in motion. "I'm sorry I, you know, yelled at you," he said finally, deciding it would be best to start off with an apology. "That night at—"

"I know what night you're talking about," Tamsin interrupted. "And it's OK, I know I deserved it."

"No, you didn't. You were going through a lot and I should have—"

She cut him off a second time. "There was nothing you could have done, Ronnie. I wouldn't have let you do anything."

He fell silent. That was true, even when he really wanted to help, she hadn't let him near. "How are you doing?" he asked, tucking one leg under the other so he could sit facing her. "I mean, you don't have to tell me about, you know, whatever it was that was bothering you…"

"I think you managed to figure it all out by yourself," Tamsin said with a brief, self-deprecating laugh.

Ronnie ventured a chuckle, too. "Well, you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to," he repeated. "I just want to know if you're OK. Have you talked to — you know — your parents?"

He watched a smile spread across her face. She nodded. "Yes, I have," she answered, sounding happier than she had been in a long time.

He studied the small curve of Tamsin's ear, pale against the darkness of her hair. The breeze blew again, carrying with it the fragrance of jasmine. Ronnie had missed that scent. He had missed having her near.

_I will not kiss her, though,_ he resolved silently. _Not even if I really want to. I can't do that kind of thing…yet._ "What are your plans for the summer?" he asked. He had to know how much time he had left before she went away.

"Well, my…dad and I are almost done packing," Tamsin said, "but we're going to stick around for a couple of weeks before going back to New York and give my mom time to rest from her trip here. As you can see, she's not very strong."

Ronnie nodded. He could tell that Tamsin's mom had been seriously ill, but he hadn't planned on remarking on it.

"How about you?" she asked then, looking up at him.

He looked away quickly, lest she realize that he had been staring at her. "Oh, I'm definitely going to hang around here until it's time to go off to college," he answered casually. 

"Maybe," Ronnie went on in the same casual tone, "maybe we can hang out a few times…just as friends…before you go. A bunch of us are planning to go to the Snack n' Cue Tuesday night — Gerry and Emma and the others are going to be there."

Tamsin's expression clouded. "I don't think they'll want me around."

"Of course they will," he assured her. _I will not kiss her, even though she looks extremely vulnerable at the moment._ "In fact, they'll be glad to see you." He grinned. "Blue missed you the most, you know; he wouldn't stop talking about you."

"I'm sure he did," she said dryly. "I'll think about it, all right?"

Ronnie nodded. "Fair enough." Privately, he decided that he would take a couple of the Titans along when he came to pick her up on Tuesday night. If she didn't want to go, then the guys could help him convince her to come along.

"So, what college did you finally decide on?" Tamsin asked him then.

"I'm going to the University of South Carolina," he answered. "Alan's going to some Division III college in South Carolina, too. We're planning to meet up every so often."

"That's nice." She fidgeted for a moment, and then asked, "What's a Division III college?"

Ronnie smiled at the familiar curious note in her voice. It was so cute. _But even if it's cute, I will not kiss her._ "It's different from the school I'm going to," he explained. "Division III colleges are still good schools, academics-wise, but they don't really have recruiting programs. They don't offer athletic scholarships. Their football players play just because they want to."

"Ah." Tamsin nodded her understanding. "Well, he'll be getting a good education and that's what's important."

"Right. Where are _you_ going to college?"

"Yale."

He let out a low, impressed whistle. "Really?" _I will not kiss her. Not even in congratulations._

"Are you surprised?"

"Yeah. Of course, I'm not surprised that you _got in_," Ronnie amended, "but I remember that you were talking about going to college in New York so you can be with your mom."

"Plans change."

"So they do. Now I'll have to drive all the way to Connecticut from South Carolina. Connecticut's farther away than New York, you know."

Tamsin's eyes widened. "You don't have to do that."

Color was rushing into her cheeks, and Ronnie felt a similar blush was rising in his own face. He took a deep breath, feeling as if the necktie that he had loosened earlier was constricting around his throat again. "Yes, I do," he told her. _I will not kiss her. _

_I will not kiss her. _

_I will not—oh, to hell with it._

"Oh, Ronnie, that's sweet and all," she told him, "but what for? We're not, you know, together anymore, and you can't still be…you can't still…" Her voice trailed off when he drew closer to her and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek.

_Too fast._ This wasn't the way things were supposed to go, Ronnie thought dimly. They had just renewed their friendship mere moments ago. He was supposed to take things slowly so he wouldn't scare her away. But he couldn't.

Tamsin struggled to organize her thoughts as his lips touched her again, this time on her forehead, but found that they had spiraled away in a thousand different directions. "What are you doing?" she asked, as if every fiber of her being didn't already know.

She was saying something, he realized as he strung more kisses down her cheek and along her jaw, drawing closer and closer to her mouth, but he had no idea what it was. Still, he had to answer, he told himself as he kissed her right by the corner of her mouth and hovered, his lips just a breath from hers. He didn't want to be accused of not listening, even if he really wasn't. 

"I'll find you," he vowed, "I promise. I love you."

Her heard her suck in her breath and his heartbeat picked up when Tamsin placed a hand on his chest. But then he realized that, instead of letting him kiss her for real, she was trying to push him away. Instead of looking happy at what he had just told her, she looked miserable. "You can't want me back," she whispered shakily. "Not after all the shit I put you through."

Ronnie shrugged. "Well, strange as it sounds," he told her matter-of-factly, "I _do_ want you back. Michael didn't give me a chance to get sick of you before he took you away."

To his delight, she made a small noise of disgust at the mention of Michael. "Can we not mention his name, please?" she asked, her voice breaking on the last word. He thought the little catch meant she was laughing, but to his dismay, her eyes grew moist, then wet, and then she was crying.

"Tamsin, what's wrong?" he demanded, grabbing her hand. "Why are you crying? Was it something I said? Was it…You-Know-Who?" She told him nothing had happened between her and Michael; but if it turned out that something had indeed happened, Ronnie resolved he would hunt the little squirt down, pull off his glasses, and seriously pound him into the ground.

Tamsin shook her head again. "It's not him," she said, "it's you." She bowed her head and scrubbed at her eyes with her free hand. She was so _sick_ of crying. But what else could she do, given what Ronnie was doing to her? "I don't deserve this, Ronnie. I don't deserve you."

"I'll be the judge of that."

She looked up to see that his expression of concern had settled into a determined mask. "But people are going to talk."

"So let them talk. I don't care. I thought you didn't, either." 

"Apparently, I care more than I thought I did."

"Well, stop it." Ronnie pulled a clean handkerchief out of his pocket and put it in her hand. "And stop crying."

A tremulous laugh burst out of Tamsin as she pressed the handkerchief to her face. "I never knew you were so bossy," she said. She was sure the end of her nose was now quite pink, but as he wasn't looking away in disgust, it probably didn't look too bad.

"I'm the Colonel. I'm taking command."

She laughed again. "Only with my permission," she retorted.

"Yes, ma'am."

Smiling now, Tamsin raised a hand to his cheek. A pleasant warmth spread up her arm as he turned his face toward it, nuzzling her palm. "Oh, Ronnie, what am I going to do with you?"

Ronnie grinned and raised his own hand to her face. "I'm wondering the same thing about you."

Her heart gave a crazy lift when their lips finally, _finally_ met. There was both laughter and tears in that kiss. There was reconciliation, homecoming and renewal. And there was cleansing. Tamsin was both humbled and uplifted, at peace with the past and at the same time bursting with all the possibilities of the future. Her cushion fell unheeded to join her shoes on the floor.

Diana watched it drop. "Oh, my."

"Why?" Jon asked as he walked up behind her. "What's going on?"

Hidden by the screen door, she nodded at the pair on the porch swing, unable to answer. Her color heightened as she watched her daughter's arms slip around Ronnie's neck. Tamsin stiffened visibly when Ronnie's arms went around her in turn, but she relaxed again when his hands stayed right where they were supposed to be. "What do we tell his parents?" Diana asked Jon in a low voice.

He chuckled and steered her away from the door and back into the kitchen. "Let's just tell them he needs a few more minutes."

**NOT QUITE THE END…I've still got an epilogue, remember? :D**


	24. Sunshine of Your Love

**Disclaimer:** Ron, Sandy and "Junior" Bass belong to themselves and the Heisman Trophy to whoever won it last. This chapter is named after the 1967 song by Cream (Eric Clapton's old group). I only own Tamsin and Diana.

Oh, and I also own Kip Pardue…he just doesn't know it yet ;)

**Author's Notes:** Finally, this story is over! I'm tremendously relieved that I finally got to write (and finish!) a plot that's been kicking around in my head for about ten years; but at the same time sad to see it end. Ronnie and Tamsin were fun to write. Fortunately, they won't leave me alone, so they're bound to show up in my other RtT fics in one form or another. I hope you'll watch out for those, once I have them posted…whenever that will be!

I must warn you, though, that this part is very short. I didn't have trouble writing it; I was just waiting for a good time to post it. The chance seems to have passed me by, but what the heck…

_Epilogue — Sunshine of Your Love_

__

_Finally._

She hoisted herself up the last few steps and placed a hand on her big belly to calm the child moving about within. After blinking and taking a few deep breaths to clear the spots flashing before her eyes, she zeroed in on her husband, who was sitting on the dusty attic floor amid heaps of junk. An open packing box — apparently the source of all the junk — sat in front of him.

He looked up, saw her, and smiled. The sunlight streaming in through the skylight glinted off his hair. "Hi there."

"Hi." She waddled toward him, one hand supporting her lower back. Recognizing the signs of a pregnant woman in distress, her husband reached for her, knowing fingers searching out the kinks in her overburdened muscles. She hissed sharply when he dug into a particularly tight spot, then relaxed when the tension dissipated. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he replied, punctuating the massage with an affectionate pat on her bottom. The caress elicited a blush from her that made him chuckle.

"Have you found anything?"

He beamed proudly. "Sure did. I found lots of great stuff."

She inspected the large pile nearest her. There were footballs smudged with faded signatures, tattered paperbacks, old jerseys and pennants. "I'm sure we'll get great prices for these," she said approvingly. The charm on her bracelet tinkled as she pawed through the pile.

"Oh, no, we're not selling that. _This_ is the 'to go' pile." Her husband gestured to the much smaller pile of random odds and ends on his right.

Her dark eyes widened. "You're keeping all of this junk and letting go of just _that_?"

"Hey, this junk is important." He put a proprietary hand on her belly and laughed in delighted when, as if on cue, the baby responded with a mighty kick that made its mother grunt. "Junior will need it if he wants to win the Heisman someday."

His wife rolled her eyes. "You called the first one 'Junior,' too," she reminded him, "and look at how _she_ turned out."

"Speaking of the first one, is Sandy asleep?" he asked, referring to the golden-haired little girl who had been running through the house just moments before, refusing to take a nap and driving her mother to distraction.

"Yes," his wife replied, sounding tremendously relieved. "Haven't you noticed how quiet it is?"

He cocked his head to one side, pretending to listen hard. "My God, I think you're right."

She laughed and turned her attention back to heap of things that her husband intended to keep. In addition to the football memorabilia, there were also old photographs, several tattered paperbacks, a plastic fishbowl castle and a crumpled paper bag that proved to be full of candy wrappers. "What are you doing with all of this, anyway?" she exclaimed. "I can't believe you kept so much junk in the first place!"

Ron Bass favored his wife with his winning grin. "I kept everything that reminded me of you."

Tamsin Lee-Bass narrowed her eyes at him. Even after all these years, she was still no match for that smile. "All right, all right, let's move on to the next box."

A month and a half later, Ron and Tamsin Bass welcomed their second child, Diana Elizabeth. "Junior" was born four years later. The family lives in South Carolina.

**THE END**


End file.
